Career advice needed..

[Wee Keong Soh]

Hi there,

I hold an engineering degree and did Java in 1 semester. Im currently holding a job in the finance industry. Im comtemplating a career switch to something that is Java related. May I have advice on the following?

1) Should I take the SCJA or the SCJP to ready myself for this challenge or are there any alternatives?

2) What are the possible career development paths in a java related career?

3) What can i expect from a Java career? Do we mostly do our job alone or we need to work in teams most of the time?

4) What are some of the personal qualities that i must possess in order to excel in this area?

I would be grateful if anyone can share his/her experience with respect to the above.

Thanks

[Rogerio Kioshi]

Hi,

Today, only a certification like SCJP doesn't make you a so different profile, because many people has it.

Try searching what the companies are looking for, and study the topics they ask.

For instance, I got this from a job offered:

Skills:


* Experience performing object oriented development
* Experience with J2EE architecture, including experience with one or more of the following: EJBs, Struts, Servlets, JMS, JNDI, J2EE Connectors, JDBC, Hibernate, ANT, etc
* Experienced with Java tools including WSAD, RAD, JBuilder, Eclipse, NetBeans preferred
* Knowledge of J2EE testing tools (i.e JUNIT, JTEST, Mock Objects, LoadRunner, etc) preferred
* Experience with IBM Websphere Application Server, ClearCase, Unix, and Oracle preferred
* UML design tools including Rational Rose/Enterprise Architect preferred
* Experience building scalable, mission critical applications
* Experience with full project life cycle from establishing requirements through delivery and production
* Experience managing onshore/offshore applications development services is a plus

Then do a lot of courses (or study from Internet), because IT is always changing, all the time.

[arulk pillai]

Completely agree with Rogerio. There are so many different ways to differentiate you from other professionals without relying too much on the certification. I have addressed these avenues in my resume companion. Just one certification would do for beginners who do not have any experience based achievements.

For example

-- having the right technical skills (frameworks/technologies/tool sets).
-- Highlighting your prefessional achievements. Quantify it where possible.
-- Highlighting your well ronded ability with business and soft skills.
-- Developing good networking and marketing skills.

I prefer gaining hands-on experience in what the employers are looking for and simultaneously learning the fundamentals through good books and online resources.

Note: This is my personal view only. It worked for me and others may not agree with this.