Career advise - regarding roles

PMBhazee · Post by **PMBhazee** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:29 am

Hi all,
I have been reading this forum for a while now especially most of the threads related to R2I jobs and what I have noticed is that most of the R2I'ers have atleast 8-10 years experience. Well as for me I am kind of totally pissed off with how my career has gone so far.

I have a MS from US in EE graduated in 2003.But at that time because of the bad job market and visa cap regulations I could not get a visa and decided to go back to India with no experience. Even though my first option was to get into any of EE companies which would consider MS degrees I could not really make it , so decided to join one of the tech services company in less than a month on my return to india as an entry level candidate working with BE's even though I had a BE MS.I used to think all the time about the time and money I invested for my MS and finally settling down with an entry level position.:emcry:
In a years time I came to US through the same tech service company and now it is almost 3 years now. So my total experience is 4 years of which 3 in US and 1 in India. But the worst part in my current job which I have been doing for the past 3 years is more of a bug fix,production support, little bit of co-ordination ,working on third party vendor specific tools. So inspite of these 4 years experience I really dont have a strong technical expertize in any of the core technologies.I am kind of worried if I think about my future as I am planning for R2I becuase of family reasons. As long as I stay in my present organization I d'ont think I will be able to market my MS since I joined as a fresher. So I am planning to shift jobs on my R2I. This time I will be going back with a MS and 4 years experience but not much of technology expertize behind me.
Can you guys suggest what kind of roles should I be applying.
I am also ready to take any sort of certification too if it makes a big difference in my job hunt.
Thanks in advance.
Bhaz

ILuvHyd · Post by **ILuvHyd** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:54 am

PMBhazee,

Don't feel bad. Looks like you wore multiple hats in your work experience and it is not a bad thing. Market yourself as a "Versatalist" (Gartner coined term and I picked it up in their Orlando Symposium in 2006). Majority of IT jobs are like yours. Only a small percentage get to work in core development etc etc. You must have picked up a lot on the process side of things in big companies, exposure to production environment etc - it's valuable experience and try to highlight that. One of my first questions I ask in interviews is "What did you learn new in the last 6-12 months?". As far as you are continuously learning something new related to your job, it is OK. Always try to balance that with what's really happening in the industry as a whole by browsing through some websites. These are some I visit very often
http://www.computerworld.com/
http://www.zdnet.com/
http://www.techtarget.com/

Added Later:
---------------

Also utilize the training dollars and opportunities in your company. Gartner and Forrester organize some great IT conferences that pretty much give you a good cross section of IT latest trends and happenings.
http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/conference/info.php?priorityCode=CMCGNL04
http://www.gartner.com/it/sym/2008/spg10/spg10.jsp?WT.mc_id=GoogleAd&gclid=CIy2zJKvs5ICFRFBFQodHwefRw

I hope this helps.

Regards,
ILuvHyd.

Chicago Desi · Post by **Chicago Desi** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:01 am

Career progression is a funny thing. Some have to return and start afresh. Others get stuck in the GC process and lose valuable and productive years.

Don't lose heart. Come up with a career plan. Define goals and objectives. Plan by developing short term and long term career goals. Find a mentor. Develop a network of individuals who will have a vested interest in your growth. Take initiative to plan, start and execute new projects with different ideas. Sell yourself and your ideas. If you do the above for 2 years, you will be in good shape.

Sorry I do not have specific suggestions for a career track since I do not work in IT.

deshbhakt-2 · Post by **deshbhakt-2** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 1:09 am

PMBhazee;91761Hi all,
I have been reading this forum for a while now especially most of the threads related to R2I jobs and what I have noticed is that most of the R2I'ers have atleast 8-10 years experience. Well as for me I am kind of totally pissed off with how my career has gone so far.

I have a MS from US in EE graduated in 2003.But at that time because of the bad job market and visa cap regulations I could not get a visa and decided to go back to India with no experience. Even though my first option was to get into any of EE companies which would consider MS degrees I could not really make it , so decided to join one of the tech services company in less than a month on my return to india as an entry level candidate working with BE's even though I had a BE MS.I used to think all the time about the time and money I invested for my MS and finally settling down with an entry level position.:emcry:
In a years time I came to US through the same tech service company and now it is almost 3 years now. So my total experience is 4 years of which 3 in US and 1 in India. But the worst part in my current job which I have been doing for the past 3 years is more of a bug fix,production support, little bit of co-ordination ,working on third party vendor specific tools. So inspite of these 4 years experience I really dont have a strong technical expertize in any of the core technologies.I am kind of worried if I think about my future as I am planning for R2I becuase of family reasons. As long as I stay in my present organization I d'ont think I will be able to market my MS since I joined as a fresher. So I am planning to shift jobs on my R2I. This time I will be going back with a MS and 4 years experience but not much of technology expertize behind me.
Can you guys suggest what kind of roles should I be applying.
I am also ready to take any sort of certification too if it makes a big difference in my job hunt.
Thanks in advance.
Bhaz[/quote]

Hey man, below is my story (almost similar to yours). Was in the same boat, but check it out how I love my job now. Hope this will help you.

Did my BTech in CS, MS in Telecom. Joined a reputed Telecom company and within a year got laid off due to the 2001 Telecom crash. I was not able to get any Telecom job for months. Fortunately, I was able to get into a phone company to write some scripts for them. I hated coding and development but this was a pure e-Commrce development job. I really really hated the job every day. Eventually they saw that I cant do shit when it comes to coding and put me in Prod support. Hated that again. Those were the worst days of my life. Felt low every day. Family life got screwed up etc etc. In the prod support role I had to deal with clients, communicating with them, coordinating with the clients and the dev teams. Clients as well as the IT management saw my communication and problem solving skills and asked me if I can help the client gather requirements etc for future projects. That is how I changed to being a BA and eventually a PM. I am now a Project/Program Manager. Never looked back again. Although I feel bad that I am not able to use my education in the job, but I think education is just to give you a perspective of life. It is all on how you apply your education to be successful in life. Just cheeer up, be patient and look at your strengths. Move forward with optimism and think Big. If not development, there are other more important stuff that might need you.