Seminar on Careers in Software Industry

First of the series on career-seminar was held in Nashik on the 'Careers in Software". Mr N.C. Gosavi, Training and Competency Head, Manufacturing Vertical, TCS and Sanjiv Bhamre, Career Designer at Nashik presented  views of software career.  While N.C.Gosavi presented the view of 'careers' from Industry point, Sanjiv Bhamre presented the view of careers from individual's angle.

From left to right : Vinayak Ranade, Sanjiv Bhamre, Vishwas Thakur and N.C. Gosavi

Many misunderstandings of software careers were clarified in this seminar. For instance, Software career is not just one career: Career of developer. There is also a career of 'Enterprise and Industry Expert' who works with Ready made Package products like SAP, or Qualcom in Telecom, or Banking softwares. There is also career of 'Tester' and 'Engineering and Industrial Solutions' engineer as well as high end BPO career in knowledge based services like Legal ( where LLB and LLM graduates work) as well as  Analytics ( where CAs work).

Some of the notable characteristics of software careers identified in the seminar were as follows: 

Pros (positive points) about Software careers

• Software careers are both in customer facing functions ( where extroverts thrive) as well in internal facing functions ( where introverts are more likely to succeed). Luckily software companies also have jobs which are a mixture of customer facing and internal facing function.
• Unlike in other industries, but similar to music and sports, career growth in Software industry is both vertical ( up the hierarchy) and horizontal ( across functions and technologies)
• Like in the field of acting and cooking, Developers in this industry do not need any professional qualification.
• Software career can be initiated at the young age of 22 as well as after the age 30. I know professionals shifting to Software at the age of 45. 
• In Software, careers can be done part time as well as from home. This flexibility is very useful for girls.
• Because software careers have various options, even after joining a software company, one has to be keep eyes and ears open to search for the 'Next Direction'. Joining a software company is not the end act.

Cons (negative points) about Software careers 

• Software career is a one way entry: Many students join a software company because software jobs are easy to get. However, it is very very difficult to shift the career back to one's domain after joining software( say from software to electronics or accountancy)  if one does not like software job. Due to this difficulty, students with some interest in their domain ( be it mechanical, civil, electronics or domain) should never join software company in their first job. 
• Software careers are very stressful for two reasons. Working hours are too long. One has to work after 11 pm because US client day starts at that time. Secondly, because of the desk bound nature of the job, the stress accumulates in the body constantly.
• Software careers demand constant learning and upgradation of knowledge. There is no plateau. One cannot stop one's learning. 

More importantly, many careers will continue to be discovered as software is spreading to more and more functions. For instance, careers in retail shopping, or careers in tourism, or careers in training and teaching can be done from any town in India today without a help of big software company. Today one can find an Indian teacher in Nashik teaching mathematics to a child in Chicago if he can use software expertly. Or an tour operator organising tours of US sitting in Nashik. Or an astrologer catering to international clients. As software impacts various day to day activities of a common man, familiarity and mastery of software has become a must for everyone.