Where To Find Work (Part 1/3)

Software developers looking for employment opportunities are apt to find them just about anywhere. That's because computers are a pervasive presence in today's world, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an office that doesn't use any kind of computer technology. That said, the kind of computer technology required varies wildly. Some companies need hardware support. Some need software maintenance. Some need online portals created almost constantly.

Let's take a candid look at some companies I've worked in over my long and storied career, and see what would make decent career choices. Granted, tastes vary from developer to developer, but there are some factors that should objectively help a developer make his or her decision.

Why? We should just look at the pay, right?

Ack! That's for people who don't have long-term options and have to make the largest amount of money they can in the shortest time possible, via any means necessary. You're a developer. You're a member of an industry that will be around for a long, long time. If you're just about the money, screw long-term prospects, there's a ton of more efficient options for you out there.

Factors

Tech or non-tech? Generally, career-wise for a developer, being a developer in a tech company trumps being in the IT department of a non-tech company. But that also depends on context. More later...

Company Size. This usually means a tiny startup of maybe five employees, to an Small-medium Enterprise (around twenty to a hundred employees), to a Multinational Company. However, the term "MNC" can be misleading. Some firms in Singapore calling themselves Multinational Companies have tiny branches (five to ten employees each) in Southeast Asia while the head office has about twenty to fifty employees. Technically, they are MNCs... but size-wise, they're still Small-medium Enterprises.

Most people will tell you - the bigger, the better. That's not always true.

Service Model. Business-to-business (B2B) or Business-to-consumer(B2C)? More pertinently, is what you will be doing, directly related to profits or are you pretty much a cost center? If it's the latter, it's generally a bad idea... but again, that's context-dependent.

Now for the examples!

For ease of categorization, I'll be diving them into primarily tech and non-tech companies. And, starting with one very special category... Government bodies.

Government bodies

We're not going to go into Government-affiliated bodies, and just stick to civil service and statutory boards.

Tech or non-tech? That depends on which branch of the Government you go into. If it's the SPF, that's non-tech. But if it's IMDA, then yes, that's tech.

Company Size. Definitely Multinational Company. You may think that it's weird to classify the Government of any country as a Multinational Company. That would defeat the purpose of it being this country's Government, right? Well, bear in mind that Governments have embassies situated in other countries.

Service Model. B2B.

Pros

Prospects. Prospects are definitely bright with this option. Recognition factor is high, at least within the country itself.

Stability. No manpower laws are going to be bent here, much less broken. That means you can generally be assured they won't try to screw you over illegally, or be anything less than scrupulous with your pay and benefits (which can be pretty generous).

Cons

Long-winded. Just getting your foot in the door can be a pain in the arse. They'll generally make you fill up a ton of paperwork and produce a lot of superfluous documentation... and that's before they even interview you.

Lots of paperwork.

Things move slowly due to all that slavery to procedure. So if you're in it to effect stuff, good luck.


Snootiness. Could be my imagination, but the Government bodies, or rather, their recruiters that I've interacted with, seem to have this air about them that basically says you should consider yourself fortunate to even be considered. I once declined an interview offer from one such recruiter, and her reaction was adorable. It was like nobody had ever had the audacity to turn her down before.

Tech stagnation. This being the Government, their tech tends to be more proprietary than open-source. And their tech tends to be Microsoft or Oracle/Java. You could try changing that, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Verdict

A solid, safe choice. Though, to avoid stagnation, don't outstay your welcome. Definitely something to aim for at least once in your career.

Next

Let's take a look at tech companies.