Best Job in Tech?

By Jake • May 28th, 2009 • View Comments

Image by Yandle on Flickr used under Creative Commons

Image by Yandle on Flickr used under Creative Commons

So, Rich and Anthony are at Google I/O today, and I’m hearing everyone was blown away by Google Wave.

Rich tweeted, IM’ed and finally called me to say how awesome it was. I’m now waiting to watch the hour-and-a-half demo that rocked so hard.

I’m hoping Rich’s session went well. He was bummed that they conflicted with another Wave session. So, hopefully the room wasn’t too empty.

A couple Oracle folks were in attendance and snapped a few photos. We’ll embed the video when it’s posted, and maybe Rich will post some thoughts.

Anyway, to fill the air in the meantime, I have a question.

I’ve had several different job roles in my tech career, support/IT, consulting, sales consulting, development, and if you work in tech long enough, you probably dabble in all of the above and others at one point or another.

Which do you like best?

I’d have to say I prefer development to the others because I enjoy solving problems with software. Not that the other roles don’t have this too, but in development, it’s the main focus. I always prefer the requirements, design and build phases, and like a true development wonk, I tend to lose interest during testing and documentation.

I know, it’s tough to ensure you’ve solved a problem if you’re not testing enough, which is another reason I like beta-testing. At least then, I don’t have to guess all the ways users will behave; I can just turn them loose to show me.

Plus, you don’t have the urgency of support or sales, which is nice.

Tell us what you prefer and why in the comments.


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  • IMHO Sales Consulting is the best :-) It allows a technologist with that combination of an architect's eye (enterprise, software, and solution), development skills, product understanding, and the ability to communicate a chance to use them all. Especially at Oracle where we have a demanding customer base that spans all industries and layers of a technology solution stack from apps to middleware to platform. So, I love my job. I also appreciate that by working at a company the size of Oracle we have the opportunity to develop new skills and create/try new roles; including "mad scientist" which is what I kind of consider the AppsLab folks. :-D.
  • I enjoyed my time as an SC, but I eventually ended up doing more support and less customer work. Mad scientist is a great title, but I'd be happy to go back to Architect, which I was before a mandatory change :(
  • Patrick
    Best Role in IT: Business Sponsor
  • Is this really an IT role though? I guess I'd consider that a customer of tech, rather than a tech role. Maybe you can elaborate a bit.
  • dude, you have the best job in tech.

    1. Work for Oracle
    2. Your role is to surf the web, find new trends, then turn those into cool products (Mix, Connect).
    3. Umm...

    (i'll stop with the praise now)

    I haven't been in any role but development. I enjoy it. Sales consulting I think would be fun as you get to interact with those that use the product. Support would be good just because you get/have to learn the ins and outs of the product. I've never been in management though...not sure if I would like it but that's probably a good enough reason to try it out someday (it's a challenge right?).

    Can I be part all of those?
  • Thanks, glad you think so. I do a lot of crap besides what you list that isn't very fun :)

    I didn't include management as a tech job. Usually managers are promoted from within one of the roles I mention. Been there, done that. Ran. I'm not very good at managing. Let's leave it at that.

    Sales, consulting and support all have good aspects, but too much pressure for my liking. You have to close a deal or make a go-live date or fix a critical issue (ahem, wear a pager). Development has pressure too, but at least in my experience, it's not as bad.

    You can do parts of all these roles. Join an early stage startup.
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