Career in IT ,IT Support VS Software Development

HaVoC

This may be in the wrong place so move it if you yeah " on high" feel it's necessary.


Ok so I’m my 3rd year college doing an add-on programming diploma to a cert i did last year. I now have to decide what I’m going to do next year.
I have too choice a software engineering degree or a Computer services management degree.

I was of the mind that i would do the software engineering degree but recently it looking less and less attractive.
2 reasons are :

Reason one the future of the industry in the west is under treat imo with IBM and i think HP moving a large chunk of there Software dev teams to India and the like dazberry mention this before but I took it to be an isolated instance but seem more and more common now.

Reason two is the pressure of a career in software dev, this is my own impressions that I have got having not yet worked in the industry. It seems to me that u expected live breath and eat IT always doing course and bettering ur self i'm all up for that but i want to enjoy my life too. "Work is a necessary evil" sums it up. As well as the huge rush for deadlines ever 6 months can’t be good for you. Don’t get wrong I not afraid to work it just I like have fun and I like spend my weekend at LAN party or pubbing or anything but learn the new feature of java 1.5 .

So i have been coming around to going into support but I enjoy programming and I can learn fairly quickly. It just I want a degree that gets me a good job at the end of the day that allows time for fun.

Any views or advice would good Thanx

voxpop

I'd say its more likely for support jobs to go to more competitive countries like India than software dev jobs

Also unless you plan to go into higher end support eg supporting servers over supporting desktop - I wouldnt even conside support. With desktop support you're always being dragged about cus someone always has a problem, plus you dont have get much of a chance to learn anything new and can become stuck doing that type of support for a long time. On top of all that, virtually noone has any respect for you. Everyone demands that their problem is fixed first and never remembers the last time you sorted something for them.

As for development - well its tougher to get into unless you have some experience - you really need a small company to take a risk on you and so you'll gain your experience. Otherwise you might end up starting in the testing/localisation dept with promises that you can head into development.
As for having to work hard - it depends on the company and the sort of jobs they do. For a small to meduim company that work on contract type jobs (1-6 months on a job), you will usually have to put in long hours coming to the end of the contract the company is working on and you would be expected to learn new thing if you have to.
For big companies or working for the government, its generally 9-5/6 because the company has been around long enough to refine its development process and has enough resources to get things done in the required time.

In the end, if you like messing with servers then do server type support. If you like developing code then software developer is for you.

Hobbes

You always have to upskill or die in IT. This would probably apply to Support as well as development.

As well as the huge rush for deadlines ever 6 months can’t be good for you.

I wish. Try every 3 months.

HaVoC

Angry_Penguin

you will usually have to put in long hours coming to the end of the contract the company is working on and you would be expected to learn new thing if you have to.

Actually how do learn these new thing just get a book ur self or do some weekend course ?

I dont mind learn new stuff off other and on my own its just the tought of going on training course all the time piss me off

KlodaX

this I find depressing ... now in my final 12 weeks of a s/w degree ... but since the topic has been raised ... this link may influence you.

http://www.eetuk.com/bus/news/OEG20020906S0004

Trojan

Originally posted by KlodaX
this I find depressing ... now in my final 12 weeks of a s/w degree ... but since the topic has been raised ... this link may influence you.

http://www.eetuk.com/bus/news/OEG20020906S0004

Please note that this article is dated September 2002.