Can't decide which position to take!

**nomadd** · 20 November 2010, 14:22

Originally posted by Mr Pancamo View Post

Greetings all

Not a 'contracting' question as such, so apologies in advance. I did use this forum when I was a contractor and always was given great advise, so hence the q.

I'm currently employed as a Blackberry Engineer - that is I design the Blackberry BES servers. It's a global company. My background is AD/Exchange/Blackberry.

I've been offered a role at another, much bigger/wealthy company (prob one of the best in the world), as a senior Messaging Analyst, supporting their Exchange, Blackberry, Lotus, Symantec Vault etc environment. The role I've been offered is more money and a higher position.

What I'm concerned about is the fact that a number of support roles are being taken out to India etc. But - with the current role, I'm not sure how much future Blackberry has. I can see a lot of places going to Bring Your Own Devices soon, lessing the need for teams like mine. Plus, 'support' can be seen as a drop down from 'engineering'.

What's people's opinion here that are 'in the know'? :-)

Kind of agree with you over the future of BB. We've already seen Palm go to the wall - and I don't think HP will do much to help them in the smartphone business. The Win7Mobile and Android devices - plus Apple - seem to have cornered the whole market. Even Sony and Nokia have struggled against the onslaught.

Why not see how the new role pads out? And, on the side, keep your "engineering" skills up-to-date. Do some Android and iPhone development; it's next exactly expensive or difficult to get into. I did a massive Web project for a Bank a couple of contracts back; two of the guys there, with no experience of mobile, knocked something up pretty quick on the iPhone and demo'd it to the business. Result was that they got hired to turn the whole thing into a complete product offering. In other words, if you never try, you'll never know... Guess it all depends on how keen you are to stay in engineering.

**Fred Bloggs** · 20 November 2010, 15:53

I'd be tempted to jump, but then again, that might just be the bl**dy minded mercenary contractor type in me!

**Mr Pancamo** · 20 November 2010, 18:53

Originally posted by nomadd View Post

Kind of agree with you over the future of BB. We've already seen Palm go to the wall - and I don't think HP will do much to help them in the smartphone business. The Win7Mobile and Android devices - plus Apple - seem to have cornered the whole market. Even Sony and Nokia have struggled against the onslaught.

Why not see how the new role pads out? And, on the side, keep your "engineering" skills up-to-date. Do some Android and iPhone development; it's next exactly expensive or difficult to get into. I did a massive Web project for a Bank a couple of contracts back; two of the guys there, with no experience of mobile, knocked something up pretty quick on the iPhone and demo'd it to the business. Result was that they got hired to turn the whole thing into a complete product offering. In other words, if you never try, you'll never know... Guess it all depends on how keen you are to stay in engineering.

Thanks...sorry - when I say 'Engineering', it's more architecture etc, we don't really develop stuff, more plan capacity for new servers/solutions that sort of thing. Whilst I think that mobile is only going to grow, I think the need for dedicated mobile server engineers will lessen, as they will be integrated into Exchange, Citrix etc.

I should also say that I've been at my current position about 8 months only (it's a permo role), so am slightly worried about that looking bad on my CV. Then again, I'm concious that the longer I'm out of Exchange/AD, the harder it will be to find another role in it - esp in a large company. And once Exchange 2010 comes out - which I never used - I won't be able to get back in at all!

**monobrow** · 20 November 2010, 21:59

there are a number of factors driving IT at the moment.

Mainly commoditisation,consumerisation and cloud.

If you want to pick something that lasts I'd suggest project management,service management or development.

In the 90s I worked in a team of 15 running an enterprise mail system, that same systam can now be run by a couple of people including BES, any smart device support - see where I'm going with this?

Gmail is one of the fastest growing enterprise mail systems, so is microsofts BPOS offering.

In short, follow the money, in 5 years the world will look very different.

**Clippy** · 20 November 2010, 22:58

Originally posted by Mr Pancamo View Post

Greetings all

Not a 'contracting' question as such, so apologies in advance. I did use this forum when I was a contractor and always was given great advise, so hence the q.

I'm currently employed as a Blackberry Engineer - that is I design the Blackberry BES servers. It's a global company. My background is AD/Exchange/Blackberry.

I've been offered a role at another, much bigger/wealthy company (prob one of the best in the world), as a senior Messaging Analyst, supporting their Exchange, Blackberry, Lotus, Symantec Vault etc environment. The role I've been offered is more money and a higher position.

What I'm concerned about is the fact that a number of support roles are being taken out to India etc. But - with the current role, I'm not sure how much future Blackberry has. I can see a lot of places going to Bring Your Own Devices soon, lessing the need for teams like mine. Plus, 'support' can be seen as a drop down from 'engineering'.

What's people's opinion here that are 'in the know'? :-)

Originally posted by Mr Pancamo View Post

Thanks...sorry - when I say 'Engineering', it's more architecture etc, we don't really develop stuff, more plan capacity for new servers/solutions that sort of thing. Whilst I think that mobile is only going to grow, I think the need for dedicated mobile server engineers will lessen, as they will be integrated into Exchange, Citrix etc.

I should also say that I've been at my current position about 8 months only (it's a permo role), so am slightly worried about that looking bad on my CV. Then again, I'm concious that the longer I'm out of Exchange/AD, the harder it will be to find another role in it - esp in a large company. And once Exchange 2010 comes out - which I never used - I won't be able to get back in at all!

Your posts are a little bit confusing so to clarify:

Current position: Blackberry Engineer
Role: Design/Deploy BES Infrastructure
Employer: Large Co.

New position: Senior Messaging Analyst
Role: Support of Exchange/Blackberry/Lotus/Symantec Vault etc environment.
Employer: Global Co.

By the sounds of it, your concern is that you are going from an architecture type role to a support type role. Correct?

If so, then I would have to agree that this is a step backwards - anything that takes you away from support is a good thing as, you and others rightly point out, it is at the mercy of off-shoring.

Don't get pent up with the job title as, although it sounds better, if you are essentially doing support then it doesn't mean it is a more senior role in the scheme of things.

If the new company is as large as you say, then they must have someone/a team who design/architect their messaging environment in which case you have a potential career path.

However, the way the economy is at the moment, I would suggest your deciding factor should be whichever one you feel offers the greater stability at this point in time and not necessarily which role pays the most.

Whatever you decide, best of luck.

**Mr Pancamo** · 21 November 2010, 21:09

Originally posted by Clippy View Post

Your posts are a little bit confusing so to clarify:

Current position: Blackberry Engineer
Role: Design/Deploy BES Infrastructure
Employer: Large Co.

New position: Senior Messaging Analyst
Role: Support of Exchange/Blackberry/Lotus/Symantec Vault etc environment.
Employer: Global Co.

By the sounds of it, your concern is that you are going from an architecture type role to a support type role. Correct?

If so, then I would have to agree that this is a step backwards - anything that takes you away from support is a good thing as, you and others rightly point out, it is at the mercy of off-shoring.

Don't get pent up with the job title as, although it sounds better, if you are essentially doing support then it doesn't mean it is a more senior role in the scheme of things.

If the new company is as large as you say, then they must have someone/a team who design/architect their messaging environment in which case you have a potential career path.

However, the way the economy is at the moment, I would suggest your deciding factor should be whichever one you feel offers the greater stability at this point in time and not necessarily which role pays the most.

Whatever you decide, best of luck.

Correct....

And you are spot on about me feeling that going back into support would be a step back when I'm doing architecture now. But, there are two points that keep going into my head:

1. At the moment I'm on £x. Since I'm already an Architect, there is no progression really unless I go into Management.

2. At the Messaging Analyst job, I'm going to £x + £7k. PLUS - there is the career progression path into Messaging Architecture (which pays very very well).

Also -

1. What's the future of BES...more and more companies are ditching Blackberry devices in favour of Exchange Activesync, where people can connect their iphones etc.

2. I know everyone is talking about cloud computing in the future, but will it really take off that much?

3. With support, there is always the worry of off-shoring, granted. And that's where the Blackberry Engineer role is better, since it's more nice and Indians/Singaporeans are less likely to have those skills, as opposed to Exchange which is quite popular.

**rd409** · 22 November 2010, 09:26

Originally posted by Mr Pancamo View Post

Correct....

And you are spot on about me feeling that going back into support would be a step back when I'm doing architecture now. But, there are two points that keep going into my head:

1. At the moment I'm on £x. Since I'm already an Architect, there is no progression really unless I go into Management.

2. At the Messaging Analyst job, I'm going to £x + £7k. PLUS - there is the career progression path into Messaging Architecture (which pays very very well).

Also -

1. What's the future of BES...more and more companies are ditching Blackberry devices in favour of Exchange Activesync, where people can connect their iphones etc.

2. I know everyone is talking about cloud computing in the future, but will it really take off that much?

3. With support, there is always the worry of off-shoring, granted. And that's where the Blackberry Engineer role is better, since it's more nice and Indians/Singaporeans are less likely to have those skills, as opposed to Exchange which is quite popular.

I personally, would not consider "Offshoring" as a parameter in my future planning. The reason is plain simple. If the job cannot be offshored, nothing stops the company to bring in cheap labour from India/Brazil/South Africa on a temporary basis.

I have been working in a cloud environment for about a year and half, and strongly believe Cloud Computing is the future. It depends on what technology you work with, but I have seen the demand of cloud growing exponentially. I am at good rates at the moment, because the availability of specialists in my field are few and far, but in next couple of years, there will be hundreds if not thousands of professionals with required skill set, so the rates are going to get down, but then there will be something new coming up in the horizon, which we can jump on.

This is the main difference between a perm role and contract. You (Contractors) have to identify a niche market, train yourself quickly, and start working. When it is not that lucrative, transfer the knowledge to permies, and move on to the next cycle.

Simples.

Can't decide which position to take!