What did I just drink? - All Comments

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Regg — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:29:57 GMT

Garth Oelofse, where do you work and are you interested in another SA position?

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Garth Oelofse — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:01:47 GMT

With ll the information that has been posted it still remains down to experience & knowledge !!!!! And believe me you do'nt get it out of a text book, or a uni degree !!!! When you can get the people to gether that are specialists in their own right of being then you have acheieved the ultimate specialty of becoming a solutions architect.

It is not what you know but who you know that makes the difference !!!!

Sleep tight folks !!!!

I am out of here !!!!

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

deepak bhojwani — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:05:00 GMT

Thanks all for useful information !!

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Varun BC — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:53:00 GMT

Hi,

i think there is no universal way to become a solution architect, i am working in support and have spoken with wuite a few solution architect i believe we need to posess 2 main requisites
1) Deep knowledge about the domain we are working on
2) upto date knowledge about the current market technologies

we need to provide a solution to the customers so we need to have a good knowledge and only that niche skill will help us become one.

This is the path which i think is what i am following
support analyst -> deep level support -> developer -> develpment lead -> business user->analyst -> technical architect -> solution architect

this may not be same to one and all since the roles vary from organization to organization
let me know your inputs on them

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Mromar — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:49:00 GMT

I have probably a very short and steriod boosted route to becoming an SA.
IT Support Analyst (with one of the worls most prestigious firms) > Network Solution Analyst (General Electric) > Technical Solution Consultant (Tier 1 H.W Vendor) > Lead Solution Architect for about a year now.
I just turned 25 . I hold an undergrad Computer Sciences, MCSE, Different Cisco Basic cert's and I am going to start working on my PMP next month. My goal is to get an Executive MBA in the coming years. In the past I have been turned down for being too young for an EMBA (Avg. age is 38).

But I agree some of the people here have paid a very heavy price with time and effort spent. I got to this level in 7 years (hard work) and am earning in the low 6 figures. But having said that I was technically abandoned to fend/feed for myself at the age of 15. So it has taken many blue colored jobs to pay for my education (still paying) and many sleepless night to make up for the lost study time. To anyone out there willing to move down this path, my recommendation to them will be to get a PMP. As an SA is expected to think about every aspects, possibility of success & failure before making recommendations.

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

teshman — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:19:00 GMT

What a useful source of inforamtion about SA.

Well, I am also interested in knowing the salary range of this position.

cheers,

Teshman

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Pradyumna Harish — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:20:00 GMT

Age: 29
Experience: 8 yrs
My path:
Project Trainee -> Developer -> Sr.Software Engineer -> Module Lead -> Tech Lead -> Team Lead -> Project Lead -> Solutions Architect

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Tony — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:23:00 GMT

C/C++ Developer -> Systems Administrator -> Senior Systems Adminitrator -> Enterprise Application technical support senior analyst -> Senior SAP basis consultant -> Senior SAP Basis Lead -> SAP Technical Architect -> SAP Technical Architect Manager -> Solutions Architect

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Sobhan Hota — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 18:17:00 GMT

The solution architect role is definitely technical focused. This could be a management/business specific, but most cases this is established with technical features. So it doesn't matter, which path you really choose among two, unless you are in touch base with technology. But ultimately you are the one who is going to evaluate a new problematic enviroment and build the whole big picture by capturing all the minute details in order to provide a robust environment which should last long compared to a generic/stereotyped solution.

Thanks
Sobhan
www.collabotrade.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sobhanhota

re: First WPF Application

Ian Griffiths — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:16:00 GMT

What "usual smart client tricks for UI updates" didn't work when you tried them?

WPF supports the AsyncOperationManager, and it also supports the SynchronizationContext. These are what I've always thought of as the usual tricks - for example, these are what the BackgroundWorker is based on, and that's why the BackgroundWorker works fine on WPF even though it was designed for Windows Forms.

Also, if it's just property updates you need, if you're implementing INotifyPropertyChange you don't even need to take any steps to get updates done on the right thread. WPF detects when property changes raised by this interface occur on the wrong thread and handles the cross-threading for you.

It's only if you're updating the UI directly, or if you're relying on list binding (unfortunately, WPF doesn't cope with cross-thread INotifyCollectionChanged events) that you need to manage the threading by hand.

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Nanda — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 19:08:00 GMT

Melanie,
Thanks for a very good insight on how to leverage an MBA in an IT environment. I am in the same boat where I gained good amount of IT Experience in a huge Telco and obtained an MBA from a fairly reputed business school. However I always felt that being in the IT organization of a Telco (or any company that uses IT as just a service), one cannot make a lot of impact from business ownership and revenue growth point of view. I thought in order to leverage an MBA Any input is greatly appreciated.

re: If you use WEP you are in DANGER

Chris — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 04:21:00 GMT

For those who want the ease of using WPA2-Enterprise I would recommend using a free Radius solution www.wifiradis.net. With WPA2-Enterprise you can simply enter in a username and password for each individual user.

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Vikas — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 05:57:00 GMT

Hello folks,

This has been a good and informative reading here.

Well one thing I have noticed and want to ask to community here:

Everyone culminated the career path sketch on reaching SA node. What's next?

I have around 12 years of experience in IT in many roles. My journey so far has been as:

Freelancer > Freelance Consultant/Developer (basically one man show) > SE > SSE > Development Lead > Product Lead > Technical Lead > Technical Manager (hh! Why I came here? Good! I realized soon) > Technical Architect > Solution Architect

Now the question is what next? Where you guys (SAs) see yourself 5 years from now?

Thanks,
Vikas

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

Catalyst — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 17:12:00 GMT

What you just drank? The kool-aid...that's what

re: What does the Solutions Architect career path look like?

TM — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:06:00 GMT

Hi Guys,

Recently i have been offered a position of Senior Solutions architect with one of the well know s/w company.

My career path had been as follows:

Engineer->Sr. Engineer-> Tech Lead -> Senior Tech Lead -> Project Manager (Changed to management role) -> Sr. Project Manager -> Sr. Solution Architect (New role offered).

Though I have changed my role in between from technical to management but being in a product company, I as a manager am hands on with the technology.

My biggest USP (as per my employer) had been that in my 11+ years of career i have worked with multiple technologies like Wireless, VOIP, IMS, Network Management. Due to which my employer chose me as Sr. Solution architect.

Personally i like technology and i like proposing end 2 end soltions to customers (i have done many in the past), every thing looks good but i would like to have a second opinion from the community that is it right and is there a growth in this path.

Cheers,
TM