Career Shift in Software? - A Few Tips.
Career opportunities in Software.
There is an acute shortage of software professionals all over the world. Recently one might have heard of a slowdown or retrenchment of technical staff in the US, but it has to be considered as just a correction. The medium to long term demand for software professionals is always bright. The demand of professionals has decreased considerably from Eastern Asia, with their economic woes, but the demand has strengthened in USA and Europe. In order to understand the software industry better one has to understand the different types of projects. Software projects are basically of two types, Application Software & System Software.
Application software is basically supposed to cover the entire gamut of business applications. As the business areas are vast, different technologies are available to meet the customer’s requirements
Applications such as Payroll, Financial Accounting, Inventory would be developed with the Client Server Technology. The major clientele is the industrialized sector. Hence a lot of software products are available catering to industry needs. Specific products for other areas are also available such as Doctors, Lawyers, Restaurants etc.. Client Server is the technology but different development tools are available, which are categorised as Front End and Back End Development Tools
Front End Development Tools
Popular Front Ends are Visual Basic, Powerbuilder, Developer 2000 etc..
Back End
A back end could be considered as another name for Database. Popular databases are SQL – Server, Oracle, Informix. Sybase etc.. Oracle is a popular choice with Indian Engineering Industry, but SQL – Server is a popular choice of the dot.com companies.
Job opportunities
Jobs available are for Programmers, Quality Assurance, Testing and Technical writing. On the front end side, VB is preferred whereas on the back end side one can go in for either Oracle or SQL Server. There are also opportunities for jobs of Data base administrators (DBAs). Sybase is very popular in the financial markets of Tokyo and New York, but unfortunately has very few installations in India. Thus getting exposure would be difficult.
Testing and QA jobs are good for QA professionals with Non- IT background to shift to the information technology. Knowledge of testing tools such as Winrunner, Silk Test is desirable.
The Internet provides a number of opportunities for web designers and developers. The most popular development tools for the Internet are ASP and Java. There are other tools also but these do not have a major market share namely CGI, PERL, Cold Fusion etc.. Web designers should not only know the core HTML, but also tools such as Flash, Dreamweaver etc..
The internet has now gone wireless, so you can access the Internet through your cellphone, Palm Pilots etc.. Such devices are called Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). Technologies in demand are WAP, WML, Bluetooth etc..
System Software encompasses projects for Device Drivers, Compilers, Embedded Software etc.. The number of projects in both value and volume is less compared to application software. Knowledge of Electronics or core computer concepts such as Operating system internals, Memory management is definitely required. Veritas, Cirrus Logic and Computer Vision (Parametric) are some American Companies who have set up shop in Pune and have a lot of System software projects. Due to requirement of electronics background, these jobs should not be targeted by non IT professionals trying to shift to IT.
Software tools used would be C/ C++ / VC++.
Hope the above information helps the reader to make a successful career shift to software development.