What to catch in the career of an IT architect: expectations VS reality
Hi, Habr.
My name is Anna Lisovskaya, I am the IT architect of the corporate sales development department. The idea of this post was suggested to me by a former fellow student who suddenly became bored in the design. One day he decided that he no longer wanted to write code, began to look for opportunities for development in related IT areas and attacked me with questions about the features of the work of IT architects. From the conversation, it became clear that even IT-colleagues are poorly aware of the difficulties and peculiarities of the IT architect profession. It is not excluded that the errors in which my former classmate was absent are quite different.
I gathered my experience and experience of colleagues in the post in the format of "expectation / reality". Such a format seems to me most useful in terms of working with expectations regarding the profession of an IT architect — often among IT professionals, these expectations are either not entirely true or overestimated. Many subtle moments become apparent only with full immersion in the profession. Better to know about them "on the shore" and ponder whether you can put up with them. I want to think that my notes will be useful for other IT people who intend to retrain in IT architects.
')
Waiting : to become a successful IT architect, you need to know well the hardware and software.
Reality : the work of an IT architect is mostly people management.
For some reason, the image of introverts, who easily cite documentation, thoroughly know how this or that software and hardware work, and all day long draw configurations of IT systems. This is only partly true. The IT architect does have the broadest outlook, knows well how software and hardware work, but people management is the main skill in his profession. The IT architect must have the skills or at least the makings of a team management, since it is he who gathers specialists from a wide variety of areas for the project. Keeping in mind the architecture of the project, he sets the tasks for specific specialists, monitors the quality and timing of the execution of certain works and ultimately is responsible for ensuring that the whole team performs the task set by the business customer. At the same time, an IT architect must be very good at speaking his business language. And in presenting his vision of an IT system, he must pay attention not only to the technological beauty and elegance of the solution as a whole, but also to emphasize its economic feasibility.
Expectation : any technical education is enough for an IT architect to work.
Reality : basic education is usually not enough; need to learn constantly.
It is foolish to deny that technical education is the basis for almost every IT profession. But it is also not too far-sighted to assert that a diploma of any technical university is enough to master the profession of an IT architect. None of the Russian university does not produce ready-made specialists in this profile. For example, I studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic at the Faculty of Radio Physics. It helped a lot in the early days of my career when I worked as a technical assistant for the sale of Cisco equipment. The background of a physics engineer helped to understand the processes on the basis of which modern communication hardware works. Thanks to this handicap in the form of knowledge in the subject area, it was easier for me than for my novice colleagues. At the same time, I quickly realized that even a fundamental education of radiophysics was not enough for me, and I decided to get a second degree in my then profile - through networks. I was promoted to a system engineer, allowed to equipment and began to attract to meetings with vendors and customers. Actually, from that moment began the most interesting. I worked a lot with the hardware, set up network and server equipment, got used to communicate with customers, gradually understood how the IT business works, how interaction with vendors and distributors is built.
I do not presume to say that my version of climbing the “ladder of knowledge” is the only correct one. Among the colleagues from the number of IT architects, there are specialists who began yesterday’s university graduates, and then plunged deeper into the subject area. Vendor courses and certifications, training centers, seminars and other educational events helped them learn more. But no matter what method of development is chosen, the IT architect learns almost constantly. You need to be ready to invest in this training at least your time, as much as possible - both time and money. For example, among my acquaintances there is a man who in the past was a hardened humanist - he is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University. At one time, set a goal to become an IT architect. He spent several years of his life on this - received a higher technical education, additionally “pumped” his skills on vendor courses and now works at the position of an IT architect in a large data center.
Waiting : the necessary knowledge can be obtained independently - everything is on the Internet.
Reality : you need to know what knowledge to get; the most valuable knowledge is not in the public domain.
The factor of self-education in the profession of an IT architect begins to work when you are faced with a specific problem within a specific project. Even within one information system, a specific problem can be solved in different ways. Therefore, even if someone has already solved a similar problem, it is not at all the fact that this solution will be suitable for the project that you are working on. According to this principle, communication is built on thematic sites on the Internet. Experts first encounter problems, write about them on the forum. And their colleagues are already recommending possible solutions based on specific conditions: look at it, twist it, read here, etc. There are simply no “magic pills” suitable for each system.
Also, it is impossible to get technical information from some vendors through channels other than official training. Such information is not on the Internet. It can not be bought anywhere.
Waiting : being an architect in a vendor company is better than working with customers.
Reality : development goes faster if you work on diverse projects.
Of course, working as an IT architect in a vendor is prestigious. A powerful social package, a measured work schedule and the absence of a constant “race” contribute to the immersion in particular of a particular solution. This requires very specific qualities - a healthy meticulousness, perseverance, the ability to correctly present the best qualities of the decision to a specific client in the format of a presentation or public speaking. Yes, these qualities will make you a professional, but, in my opinion, working as an IT architect in a provider or integrator will significantly increase your expertise and professional level in general. Working on different projects expands the technical outlook, teaches to communicate with a variety of people and learns to look for solutions that are optimal for all parties involved in the process.
If we are talking about an architect in a customer, then he is largely required to be able to convince of the need for restructuring the IT infrastructure of such "difficult" people as the general director and chief financial officer. In their picture of the world, IT is a service that spends money. Often, in order to explain the need to finance a project, IT architects from the customer, vendor and integrator team up efforts and think through arguments up to specific formulations. From my own experience, I can say that a couple of such joint brainstorming helped to much better understand the basic patterns by which decision-making mechanisms work in Russian companies.
Waiting : a programmer can easily retrain as an IT architect.
Reality : a system engineer is more likely to start a new career.
In my opinion, more favorable initial conditions to build a career as an IT architect with system engineers. They have a better idea of how the equipment works, they set everything up themselves, they have experience in eliminating all kinds of failures. Engineers may not always have enough of a theoretical base, but thanks to experience they will quickly catch up with this base. In second place - the developers. An intelligent programmer can really become a software architect — especially if such a programmer has been involved in creating large information systems and understands their logic. And then he just takes the skills to build a LAN, computing infrastructure, data storage systems, etc. It is even more difficult to retrain in IT architects from presales. Presale more or less knows the theory, but he is familiar with the equipment at the top, since he did not “twist” his settings with his hands and did not eliminate the causes of failures and did not try to understand the nature of their occurrence.
Waiting : IT architect's work is a constant creative.
Reality : enough routine, especially paperwork.
Often, future architects think that their work consists solely of working out solutions and building systems, but this is not so. There is more than enough routine, and it is not least connected with the preparation of project documentation. However, the main part of such work can be entrusted to the team, and one can control its quality of documents and bring them together. As you can see, people management pops up here.
Expectation : IT architect can develop only as an expert in technology.
Reality : it all depends on you. You can grow in absolutely any quality.
An IT architect is a universal specialist who knows IT equipment and software well, and along with these has competencies as a manager. This gives perhaps the greatest opportunity for career growth among all IT specialties. You can grow as a technical expert, develop specialization and ultimately become one of the best specialists in your subject area. Or you can develop as a manager - at least become a project manager, and as a maximum - an IT director in the customer. Especially if the customer is currently looking for a CIO for the strategic task of upgrading the infrastructure. In a word, even if one day you realize that you do not want to be an IT architect, your multifaceted experience with the same success will allow you to become a cool expert in technology and administrative functions.
Waiting : IT architect is a profession where work and time for life are successfully balanced.
Reality : working day from 9 to 18 - not about the system architect; work is stressful enough.
An IT architect is a central character in creating information systems. It depends on the architect whether the project will take place, whether the company will earn on this project. In this sense, the burden of responsibility often presses - especially when the customer sets a tight deadline, and you simply do not have the right to let the project team down. Life example: at 10 am, the working day has just begun. A customer representative calls and asks for a commercial offer by noon. Or a similar treatment arrives at 21:00, and by the morning the client asks to estimate how much the equipment will cost to deploy an IT system. I get out - I call my people in distributors and vendors, please quickly give me the cost of the solution. Much, if not all, help to solve a normally built relationship. Colleagues do not fail, but the rigid framework in which customers often put is an additional source of stress.
Conclusion
Interest in the profession of an IT architect on the part of developers and representatives of other IT specialties is supported by a good salary. But this job is not for everyone. She is not for you if:
If you do not have the above features of character, but at the same time there is a desire to develop, to become better and to master new subject areas, then welcome to the ranks of IT architects. Perhaps some of the details were beyond the scope of the post. Write questions in the comments, I will try to answer.
Anna Lisovskaya , IT architect, Softline corporate sales development department.
My name is Anna Lisovskaya, I am the IT architect of the corporate sales development department. The idea of this post was suggested to me by a former fellow student who suddenly became bored in the design. One day he decided that he no longer wanted to write code, began to look for opportunities for development in related IT areas and attacked me with questions about the features of the work of IT architects. From the conversation, it became clear that even IT-colleagues are poorly aware of the difficulties and peculiarities of the IT architect profession. It is not excluded that the errors in which my former classmate was absent are quite different.
I gathered my experience and experience of colleagues in the post in the format of "expectation / reality". Such a format seems to me most useful in terms of working with expectations regarding the profession of an IT architect — often among IT professionals, these expectations are either not entirely true or overestimated. Many subtle moments become apparent only with full immersion in the profession. Better to know about them "on the shore" and ponder whether you can put up with them. I want to think that my notes will be useful for other IT people who intend to retrain in IT architects.
')
Waiting : to become a successful IT architect, you need to know well the hardware and software.
Reality : the work of an IT architect is mostly people management.
For some reason, the image of introverts, who easily cite documentation, thoroughly know how this or that software and hardware work, and all day long draw configurations of IT systems. This is only partly true. The IT architect does have the broadest outlook, knows well how software and hardware work, but people management is the main skill in his profession. The IT architect must have the skills or at least the makings of a team management, since it is he who gathers specialists from a wide variety of areas for the project. Keeping in mind the architecture of the project, he sets the tasks for specific specialists, monitors the quality and timing of the execution of certain works and ultimately is responsible for ensuring that the whole team performs the task set by the business customer. At the same time, an IT architect must be very good at speaking his business language. And in presenting his vision of an IT system, he must pay attention not only to the technological beauty and elegance of the solution as a whole, but also to emphasize its economic feasibility.
Expectation : any technical education is enough for an IT architect to work.
Reality : basic education is usually not enough; need to learn constantly.
It is foolish to deny that technical education is the basis for almost every IT profession. But it is also not too far-sighted to assert that a diploma of any technical university is enough to master the profession of an IT architect. None of the Russian university does not produce ready-made specialists in this profile. For example, I studied at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic at the Faculty of Radio Physics. It helped a lot in the early days of my career when I worked as a technical assistant for the sale of Cisco equipment. The background of a physics engineer helped to understand the processes on the basis of which modern communication hardware works. Thanks to this handicap in the form of knowledge in the subject area, it was easier for me than for my novice colleagues. At the same time, I quickly realized that even a fundamental education of radiophysics was not enough for me, and I decided to get a second degree in my then profile - through networks. I was promoted to a system engineer, allowed to equipment and began to attract to meetings with vendors and customers. Actually, from that moment began the most interesting. I worked a lot with the hardware, set up network and server equipment, got used to communicate with customers, gradually understood how the IT business works, how interaction with vendors and distributors is built.
I do not presume to say that my version of climbing the “ladder of knowledge” is the only correct one. Among the colleagues from the number of IT architects, there are specialists who began yesterday’s university graduates, and then plunged deeper into the subject area. Vendor courses and certifications, training centers, seminars and other educational events helped them learn more. But no matter what method of development is chosen, the IT architect learns almost constantly. You need to be ready to invest in this training at least your time, as much as possible - both time and money. For example, among my acquaintances there is a man who in the past was a hardened humanist - he is a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg State University. At one time, set a goal to become an IT architect. He spent several years of his life on this - received a higher technical education, additionally “pumped” his skills on vendor courses and now works at the position of an IT architect in a large data center.
Waiting : the necessary knowledge can be obtained independently - everything is on the Internet.
Reality : you need to know what knowledge to get; the most valuable knowledge is not in the public domain.
The factor of self-education in the profession of an IT architect begins to work when you are faced with a specific problem within a specific project. Even within one information system, a specific problem can be solved in different ways. Therefore, even if someone has already solved a similar problem, it is not at all the fact that this solution will be suitable for the project that you are working on. According to this principle, communication is built on thematic sites on the Internet. Experts first encounter problems, write about them on the forum. And their colleagues are already recommending possible solutions based on specific conditions: look at it, twist it, read here, etc. There are simply no “magic pills” suitable for each system.
Also, it is impossible to get technical information from some vendors through channels other than official training. Such information is not on the Internet. It can not be bought anywhere.
Waiting : being an architect in a vendor company is better than working with customers.
Reality : development goes faster if you work on diverse projects.
Of course, working as an IT architect in a vendor is prestigious. A powerful social package, a measured work schedule and the absence of a constant “race” contribute to the immersion in particular of a particular solution. This requires very specific qualities - a healthy meticulousness, perseverance, the ability to correctly present the best qualities of the decision to a specific client in the format of a presentation or public speaking. Yes, these qualities will make you a professional, but, in my opinion, working as an IT architect in a provider or integrator will significantly increase your expertise and professional level in general. Working on different projects expands the technical outlook, teaches to communicate with a variety of people and learns to look for solutions that are optimal for all parties involved in the process.
If we are talking about an architect in a customer, then he is largely required to be able to convince of the need for restructuring the IT infrastructure of such "difficult" people as the general director and chief financial officer. In their picture of the world, IT is a service that spends money. Often, in order to explain the need to finance a project, IT architects from the customer, vendor and integrator team up efforts and think through arguments up to specific formulations. From my own experience, I can say that a couple of such joint brainstorming helped to much better understand the basic patterns by which decision-making mechanisms work in Russian companies.
Waiting : a programmer can easily retrain as an IT architect.
Reality : a system engineer is more likely to start a new career.
In my opinion, more favorable initial conditions to build a career as an IT architect with system engineers. They have a better idea of how the equipment works, they set everything up themselves, they have experience in eliminating all kinds of failures. Engineers may not always have enough of a theoretical base, but thanks to experience they will quickly catch up with this base. In second place - the developers. An intelligent programmer can really become a software architect — especially if such a programmer has been involved in creating large information systems and understands their logic. And then he just takes the skills to build a LAN, computing infrastructure, data storage systems, etc. It is even more difficult to retrain in IT architects from presales. Presale more or less knows the theory, but he is familiar with the equipment at the top, since he did not “twist” his settings with his hands and did not eliminate the causes of failures and did not try to understand the nature of their occurrence.
Waiting : IT architect's work is a constant creative.
Reality : enough routine, especially paperwork.
Often, future architects think that their work consists solely of working out solutions and building systems, but this is not so. There is more than enough routine, and it is not least connected with the preparation of project documentation. However, the main part of such work can be entrusted to the team, and one can control its quality of documents and bring them together. As you can see, people management pops up here.
Expectation : IT architect can develop only as an expert in technology.
Reality : it all depends on you. You can grow in absolutely any quality.
An IT architect is a universal specialist who knows IT equipment and software well, and along with these has competencies as a manager. This gives perhaps the greatest opportunity for career growth among all IT specialties. You can grow as a technical expert, develop specialization and ultimately become one of the best specialists in your subject area. Or you can develop as a manager - at least become a project manager, and as a maximum - an IT director in the customer. Especially if the customer is currently looking for a CIO for the strategic task of upgrading the infrastructure. In a word, even if one day you realize that you do not want to be an IT architect, your multifaceted experience with the same success will allow you to become a cool expert in technology and administrative functions.
Waiting : IT architect is a profession where work and time for life are successfully balanced.
Reality : working day from 9 to 18 - not about the system architect; work is stressful enough.
An IT architect is a central character in creating information systems. It depends on the architect whether the project will take place, whether the company will earn on this project. In this sense, the burden of responsibility often presses - especially when the customer sets a tight deadline, and you simply do not have the right to let the project team down. Life example: at 10 am, the working day has just begun. A customer representative calls and asks for a commercial offer by noon. Or a similar treatment arrives at 21:00, and by the morning the client asks to estimate how much the equipment will cost to deploy an IT system. I get out - I call my people in distributors and vendors, please quickly give me the cost of the solution. Much, if not all, help to solve a normally built relationship. Colleagues do not fail, but the rigid framework in which customers often put is an additional source of stress.
Conclusion
Interest in the profession of an IT architect on the part of developers and representatives of other IT specialties is supported by a good salary. But this job is not for everyone. She is not for you if:
- You don’t like to be responsible not only for yourself, but also for that guy.
- You believe that your availability by phone or e-mail should be limited to the working day.
- You don’t love people too much and don’t want to search for them to achieve your goals.
- The prospect of preparing or checking project documentation makes you yawn.
- You hardly get along with "Power Point" and not too enthusiastic about the fact that you need to speak to customers.
- You consider yourself the most competent specialist and do not consider it necessary to explain something to someone who does not agree with you.
If you do not have the above features of character, but at the same time there is a desire to develop, to become better and to master new subject areas, then welcome to the ranks of IT architects. Perhaps some of the details were beyond the scope of the post. Write questions in the comments, I will try to answer.
Anna Lisovskaya , IT architect, Softline corporate sales development department.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/319814/
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