Roles in IT suitable for "Visual thinkers" ?

[Rohit Nath]

Hi,
I fall into the visual thinker category. In short I associate better with visual respresentation of information.
(Also one reason why I love the head first series. )
I am trying to find out a career path in IT that would compliment my visual thinking skills which come naturally to me. What are the roles that I can take up? I enjoy visual representation of information. I want to specialize myself into such a role/position.
Any information would be valuable!

Thanks in Advance!
Rohit Nath
[ January 16, 2007: Message edited by: Rohit Nath ]

[Rohit Nath]

I am sure Kathy and Bert will understand what I am talking about!
Any information will be great and help me shape my career in right direction!

Thanks!

[Deepak Bala]

Well I dont think that would qualify as a "skill" that would fetch you a particular position in IT. I mean... visual thinking is great but you still need to either code, or manage people, or interact with a client about his/her business, or manage servers etc etc. If you are good at making a visual representation of things, companies would still raise their eye brows when you put tigers and pizzas in your class diagrams

Ah ! how I wish I could put a coffee bean in my technical documents. But NOOOOooo...

[Rahul Bhattacharjee]

Database schema designer.

[Rohit Nath]

companies would still raise their eye brows when you put tigers and pizzas in your class diagrams

haha.. yes! that would definately be an overkill!
Basically visual thinking deals with ANY kind of visual/diagramatic representation of data. An example would be use of UML tools. (I am sure they are yet to put tigers and pizzas in UML! The funny thing is you can actually extend UML diagrams and have tigers or pizzas in UML!!!)

The real question is what role deals the most with such visual representations? Example working on UML diagrams and understanding system level designs and interactions, etc. I guess these tools are used in Analysis/design phase in the SDLC but I am not sure who actually does these? Therefore the question above.

Also are there any other tools like UML which are used extensively in the industry?

[Rohit Nath]

Originally posted by Rahul Bhattacharjee:
Database schema designer.

Hmm... now we are talking!
What are similar roles ? (non DB side)

[Jason Stull]

As they say in hip-hop these days, Rohit, "I feel you". I'm also very visually oriented. I'm also a Java developer and have to visually represent and breakdown all kinds of complex problems. These problems are usually in the form of complex business domains. I think there is a huge need for developers who can visually represent complex business concepts and their relationships (Person, Organization, Role, Product, Order, Facility, ...) UML is a great tool for this whether it is used on a white-board or in a modeling tool. It is true that many of us are "stuck" doing maintenance or refactorings on older code, but I think visual representation is just as critical here as it is in new development.

[Henry Wong]

I am assuming that this conclusion was drawn from some test, like Myers Briggs, or Kathy Kolby, etc. You didn't mention which test you used.

If this isn't from a test, I would seriously think about the validity, or strength, of your conclusion. And if you did get this from some test, I would seriously reread the fine print, as most of these tests are to be used to tweak your career (by defining your comfort zone or your work style), not define your career.

And if you are doing this to just get a data point (ie. for fun), then fine. Just don't take the recommendations here too seriously.

Henry
[ January 20, 2007: Message edited by: Henry Wong ]

[Jason Stull]

I took a Myers-Briggs test once. Yes, at best, tests like this are just for fun. Persons should not be branded with the results by oneself or others. However, I think it's OK to recognize that one prefers visual activities. The question then becomes: What career makes sense where one can exercise this preference and add some collective value?

[ambar patil]

Hi...
You can think of becoming Buisness Analyst..if you are want to do creative and requirement analysis sort of work(if you mean that sort of thinking ).But somewhere even project Mgr and lead also play the same role.

[Rohit Nath]

OK!All this is good information!
Actually I am thinking as I am around 2.5 years of Experience so I need to start preparing in this direction.
Also I am wanting to know at this level of experience what are the prospective roles I can take up in the comming one years time that would give me a chance to work on UML, and analysis and designing part.
Any pointers in that direction would be of great help to me.

Thanks in Advance!

[Jeevan Philip]

The best option for you would be to look for positions in some chip design facilities. That job requires people with good spatial IQ skills and hopefully you can excel in that...
[ January 27, 2007: Message edited by: Jeevan Philip ]

[Arun Kumar]

Well Rohit

Try googling for Model Driven Architecture there is plenty of room for visulaisation in MDA

[Rohit Nath]

Originally posted by Arun Kumar:
Well Rohit

Try googling for Model Driven Architecture there is plenty of room for visulaisation in MDA

"One of the main aims of the MDA is to separate design from architecture. Realization technologies facilitating the design and architecture can alter independently. The design addresses the functional (use case) requirements while architecture provides the infrastructure through which non-functional requirements like scaleability, reliability and performance are realized."
source link
Usually in my present company Design and architecture both are done by Architect. Is it same in Industry of there are seperate people doing designing?

Also are there any certifications that would help me move towards designing? Example certification in UML and other modeling languages? If any information please share.

Thanks in advance!

[Namit Puri]

Why not try becoming graphic or web designer?

[Tontang Bei]

Why dont you become like an Acturial scientist. They are dealing with graphs and charts I think.And they make a good amount of cash too.