Open Discussion Thread: "Career Paths for Programmers"

This is an open comments and discussion thread for the developer.* article "Career Paths for Programmers," by John Bennett, Jr. Here is an excerpt from the article:

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, in the US systems analysts held an astounding 487,000 positions in 2004 (up from 468,000 positions in 2002) compared with 455,000 jobs in 2004 for computer programmers (down from 499,000 in 2002). The Handbook also states that employment for computer programmers is "expected to grow much more slowly than that for other computer specialists." And recent estimates by the Economic Policy Institute have put the number of jobs being offshored at approximately 330,000 to 500,000 jobs. About 100,000 of those were full-time computer programming jobs.

The key to maintaining a good employment outlook in IT, it seems, is to move out of programming and up into more business-oriented IT positions such as systems analyst, business analyst, project manager, or systems architect. However, a computer programmer can't just decide to become a systems analyst or project manager overnight. The journey takes time and requires the right amount of experience and learning to be successful.

If you have not yet read the article, you can read it here, and your contribution to the discussion, even if it's just a quick comment, is most welcome. Just click the "Discussion" link to get back to this page.