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Old 07-26-2017, 01:32 AM
 
3,117 posts, read 4,577,809 times
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Security architect
Network architect
Cloud architect
Artificial intelligence engineer
Big Data scientist
Enterprise architect (this is not necessarily a technical role)
IS auditor
Professional services engineer
Quant trading developer
Compliance analyst
So on and so forth
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Old 07-27-2017, 05:22 PM
 
1,279 posts, read 1,829,570 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xanathos View Post
The reason is simple: There are a lot more people out there who's claim to fame is that "they have people skills" than there are people out there who actually know how to get things done and produce something. It's Office Space.

When looking for a technical role, a company might - MIGHT - find 3 somewhat qualified applicants. After trying for quite a while. When looking for someone to be a "people manager", they're going to find 75. And those 75 are better versed in politics and BS than the technical person looking to step up (I not-so-affectionately refer to MBA's as Master Bull**** Artists, as I could probably count on 2 hands how many competent ones I've ever come across. Mostly all they're good for is writing memos).

The question becomes why one wants to join that rat race. There are roles that you can get to whereby you're basically not completely technical anymore, but you're not management, either. You sit in on the meetings, you're involved in the discussions, but your responsibility is applying your years of technical expertise into designing and architecting solutions that someone else will implement. It's straddling the line between the 2 worlds, it's the space that has the absolute least amount of competition (because it weeds out any people managers that aren't insanely technical, and any insanely technical people who have no leadership and business goal vision). And, in the vast majority of companies, these people make more than their bosses, and are basically equal in salary to a vice president without having to head into the bureaucratic nightmare that is executive "leadership". I know at my company (a very large tech house), I make more than the Director I report to, the Senior Director he reports to, the PM manager and the the junior VP that they both report to, and am within about 5 grand of the VP that sits above all of them. Which I more than make up for in the 30 or 40 grand a year they spend sending me to tech conferences and training camps. Best of all, since the role is so specialized, don't have to put up with any of the bull**** politics on either side because we are on an island. The catch being, of course, you have to be incredibly good technically and have more than a little leadership chops.
This must be just in your company. I've worked for many global companies and the solution architects/engineers couldn't architect a sandwich, let alone an enterprise system. As a guy on the delivery team (I was the lead) I had to constantly build their demo's for them, join prospect calls for the technical questions of the REAL IT personnel on the client side, and deliver the crap they promised (40% of which was lies) in some magical way. They were basically paid yes men/women. You are right that they don't do much and seem to have little responsibility other than saying yes, we can do that, but they have no idea how to even build a demo without help from the consulting/professional services team. They couldn't do anything if they wanted to. All they knew was a handful of buzzwords.
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Old 07-27-2017, 05:29 PM
 
1,279 posts, read 1,829,570 times
Reputation: 1710
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xanathos View Post
Security architect
Network architect
Cloud architect
Artificial intelligence engineer
Big Data scientist
Enterprise architect (this is not necessarily a technical role)
IS auditor
Professional services engineer
Quant trading developer
Compliance analyst
So on and so forth
Yeah, I think this is just in your company. I've worked half of these roles, and I was the principal/chief engineer at many past jobs and my current one. All of the companies I've worked at the solutions architects were completely useless, and only resulted in nightmare projects being sent to us to do things that were impossible, all because a sales engineer or solutions architect told them it could be done. Mind you, these were the same geniuses who had to have me and my team build the demo's for them because they couldn't figure it out.

All they were at every company I've worked at (BIG companies) were glorified yes men and women. They got paid, but there were in no way technical at all, nor did they do any real work, nor were they on the hook to deliver all those things they said yes to. I literally had one who wanted me to quote hours for a project with zero requirements. I told him that it would be impossible to do that, and I was tired of dealing with pissed of customers that they quoted some ridiculous number not even knowing what they needed. Rather than getting requirements, this moron just quoted them 200 hours. It ended up being 800+ hours and the client pulled the contract after the SA's and SE's drove it into the ground with their incompetence.
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Old 07-27-2017, 08:15 PM
 
371 posts, read 525,385 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by High Altitude View Post
Not really, gains in productivity is pretty weak.
thats because I feel most people hire people not based on qualifications, but because of friendships and who they know. The people who they hire know they don't have to work very hard.
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Old 07-30-2017, 05:27 AM
 
146 posts, read 77,406 times
Reputation: 173
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flexy633 View Post
I don't know what's going on out there. It seems just as bad now as it did during the deep recession of 2008-2011. Even temp agencies don't get back to candidates who apply online to their ads. You call them up and they say, "Please apply on our website and we will get back to you." It used to be that you'd call them up, make an appointment, meet with a recruiter, take some tests, and BOOM....they'd have a temp or temp to hire job in a day or two for you.

I've even started applying to $12/hour jobs that SHOULD be paying a lot more. I have over 15 years experience, a degree, and a very good resume too.

Oh, and here's something else I've noticed a lot of lately - they have internal candidates and hire them OR they decide to put the job on hold/cancel.

Thank you for your comment about agencies. I have noticed it too and going thru that now.
It used to be like you said. You apply to them and they would call you that day or the next. Even if the job you applied to doesn't fit you they'd still have another job for you.

One job i applied to the agency called me and told me i should apply to the branch that is closer to my area. I was like "what??!!!????" Usually an agency doesn't care they'll try to match you up with something. She told me i didn't qualify for the job i applied to but not only that she wasn't interested in at least trying to find me anything else just shoo'd me away.
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Old 07-30-2017, 09:16 AM
 
7,019 posts, read 3,727,433 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarlaKK View Post
Thank you for your comment about agencies. I have noticed it too and going thru that now.
It used to be like you said. You apply to them and they would call you that day or the next. Even if the job you applied to doesn't fit you they'd still have another job for you.

One job i applied to the agency called me and told me i should apply to the branch that is closer to my area. I was like "what??!!!????" Usually an agency doesn't care they'll try to match you up with something. She told me i didn't qualify for the job i applied to but not only that she wasn't interested in at least trying to find me anything else just shoo'd me away.
Why was applying to the temp agency closer to your address a problem? That way if something opened up you would be able to get to the agency faster so you can get there and be in their system. Plus that closer branch may have a job that is closer to where you live which will be a good thing.
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Old 07-31-2017, 03:41 AM
 
146 posts, read 77,406 times
Reputation: 173
(Anyone know how i can get alerted for when someone replies to me so i don't have to try to remember where i posted?)

Ok, well it was weird because this is the only branch of this agency to do that. Some of the other branches of this agency were just as far with jobs in other places far too. Since i was willing to work it they will send.
Sometimes you have to go out of your area quite a ways to get work.
The job was about 30 min from me or less. The branch i would go to for it is farther than that but it didn't matter because all i would do, if necessary because im already in the system, is get registered with that location and everything else is set. I would just show up at the job from then on.
I've had an agency call me from another state (never met them. Did it all over the phone and email) about a job and that too was far from me so that's why i found the lady at this specific branch shooing me away so weird.
Usually they'll ask/leave it up to the person if the job is too far. People drive long ways all the time, esp if they really need a job.
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Old 07-31-2017, 08:44 AM
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Location: Ohio
17,107 posts, read 38,038,481 times
Reputation: 14446
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarlaKK View Post
(Anyone know how i can get alerted for when someone replies to me so i don't have to try to remember where i posted?)
If you post in a thread, subscribe to it. Look for this popup menu pick on the original post of every thread.

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Old 07-31-2017, 02:34 PM
 
146 posts, read 77,406 times
Reputation: 173
Thank you much.
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Old 07-31-2017, 11:00 PM
 
3,117 posts, read 4,577,809 times
Reputation: 2880
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tac-Sea View Post
Yeah, I think this is just in your company. I've worked half of these roles, and I was the principal/chief engineer at many past jobs and my current one. All of the companies I've worked at the solutions architects were completely useless, and only resulted in nightmare projects being sent to us to do things that were impossible, all because a sales engineer or solutions architect told them it could be done. Mind you, these were the same geniuses who had to have me and my team build the demo's for them because they couldn't figure it out.

All they were at every company I've worked at (BIG companies) were glorified yes men and women. They got paid, but there were in no way technical at all, nor did they do any real work, nor were they on the hook to deliver all those things they said yes to. I literally had one who wanted me to quote hours for a project with zero requirements. I told him that it would be impossible to do that, and I was tired of dealing with pissed of customers that they quoted some ridiculous number not even knowing what they needed. Rather than getting requirements, this moron just quoted them 200 hours. It ended up being 800+ hours and the client pulled the contract after the SA's and SE's drove it into the ground with their incompetence.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tac-Sea View Post
This must be just in your company. I've worked for many global companies and the solution architects/engineers couldn't architect a sandwich, let alone an enterprise system. As a guy on the delivery team (I was the lead) I had to constantly build their demo's for them, join prospect calls for the technical questions of the REAL IT personnel on the client side, and deliver the crap they promised (40% of which was lies) in some magical way. They were basically paid yes men/women. You are right that they don't do much and seem to have little responsibility other than saying yes, we can do that, but they have no idea how to even build a demo without help from the consulting/professional services team. They couldn't do anything if they wanted to. All they knew was a handful of buzzwords.

Found your problem: You're cocky, and think you're smarter than you are. You can fake your way all the way up to some somewhat senior level engineering positions as long as you know how to BS well enough and understand enough theory, but enterprise level architects are incredibly difficult to find - they're basically unicorns because of the amount of skill required to do the job. I've seen plenty of inept senior engineers. Now I'm not saying that there aren't companies out there that don't get desperate and put someone who isn't up to the challenge in the roles, but those people usually wash out fairly quickly, and the company is spending that time trying to find their replacement.

Your issue is you're convinced that you're not only the smartest guy in the room, but that you're the only person in the room who has any idea what he's doing. Everybody else in the room knows that's not true, but sees that you believe it. I sort of bit my tongue in another thread where you listed what you felt were the "real" IT certifications, but displayed you weren't even aware of what some of those certs were actually about. Now that I see this, I understand it's a god complex combined with a lack of self awareness. This undoubtedly comes off in your interviews where you are trying to join the ranks of the well-behaved professionals. I would wager money that, were I to ask some of the people you've interviewed with as you attempt to leave behind the SME lifestyle, that they would say that you were aloof and clumsy in your delivery, attempting to sound the expert, but coming off hamfisted.

The good news is, you'll be fine. Plenty of socially awkward IT guys carve out good livings as an IC. The bad news is, until you tweak your outlook, you won't catch on to that next ring at any company of any repute. Your best hope if that is your ultimate goal is to get into a meat grinder that doesn't care about your faults, because they figure you'll burn out in 2 years, anyways.
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