Business Analyst vs. Architect [closed]
- by suslik
I'm a developer of a few years in the financial industry and will soon need to decide what career path to try and row towards. Broadly speaking I have two options: something more 'people' oriented like BAs, or keep coding and try to make more technical decisions like the Architects do where I currently work.
Here are my perceptions right now:
Business Analysts:
get paid way more than devs
once they do their job, it seems like they usually have no worries
more likely to go REALLY high up in the organization (VPs, etc)
Architects:
things like certification matters (I see this as a con)
called in when things go wrong more than anyone else (weekends & overtime)
long career path to get to (dev - senior dev - team lead - architect)
I would find the latter more intellectually rewarding, but when I look at it I just can't justify it in terms of lifestyle. Am I wrong / what am I missing? Can you really make a lot of money in a technical role or must you really get out of coding?
Thank you for any constructive input.