Advice appreciated

[realityhack]

I've been contracting proper for 2 1/2 years now for a big bank and I'm starting to feel stuck in a rut. There's been another thread today about careers advice, and I'd appreciate your views.

I'm <cough> not really an IT bod, got into this malarkey via an unconventional route: photography > film editing > animation > web animation > XHTML/Javascript/CSS/Actionscript > enterprise CMS and IA/usability/accessibility. My art/design background has pretty much carried me through in terms of designing UIs, content etc.

The dilemma is this: Where to go from here to make the transition from doer to planner/project manager? What training/career path do you reckon I should look into?

I was toying with the idea of venturing into usability consulting, but the whole thing seems too 'fluffy' and full of sales BS for me. I liked the idea of designing for many platforms, so was looking into XML/XSLT, but want to avoid being a code monkey for the rest of my life.

Anyone faced a similar crossroads? I really enjoy the creative process, and pulling together great front-ends out of thin air, but I find scripting laborious and dull - I'm not a mathematician, but I can understand some of the challenges faced by programmers, and have worked well with more technical staff to build systems that are refreshingly user-friendly.

Any advice?

[scooterscot]

You do what your good at and the rewards will come... why change that?

I hate management, yuck.

[SallyAnne]

You do what your good at and the rewards will come... why change that?

I have to agree - you've got the most interesting job amongst us Squirrel - why would you want out of that?

I thought you loved all your arty farty design stuff?

[malvolio]

And see my answer in the other thread - some of it also applies here.

[realityhack]

I have to agree - you've got the most interesting job amongst us Squirrel - why would you want out of that?

I thought you loved all your arty farty design stuff?

I really do - I'd become a full-time artist tomorrow if I could - but there's no money in it. I want to pull in a higher rate to have more time to develop my artwork on the side, and try to work on strategy/direction for UIs avoiding the fluffy BS if at all possible.

[malvolio]

One sells the other, doesn't it? Develop your portfolio and use it to support your strategic work - "See, if your UI looked like this example I prepared earlier..." It's the old adage of speculate to accumulate.


In reality you can't fully avoid the fluffy stuff: I mostly do strategic process design for a living and 90% of my work is getting people to agree with me. I don't like it that much, I'd much rather be working on pure design stuff and writing, but it pays the mortgage.

[realityhack]

And see my answer in the other thread - some of it also applies here.

The skillsets are probably what I'm looking to discuss, XML/XSL, AJAX support, Flex etc all look interesting but jobserve searches pull these up next to .NET, Java, ASP etc, which is not a one-week course, and probably not my cup-o-tea. Some less technical roles ask for Ajax experience without the rest.

There seems to be some buzz around the creation of dashboards at the moment, which is what I'm currently working on - but won't be coding, I'm just deciding how things should look, what the IA is and what functionalities should be provided, based on client-customer requirements.

There's no point me wading into programming if I'm not going to have the taste for it - and there's no way of knowing that unless I take the plunge into a language that serves as a great starting point and teaches good first principles. And then there's the matter of how long it would take to be proficient.

I think I'm at the crossroads of: 'more technical or more artistic or more strategy or more marketing' - and I hate all the mngmt BS & politics that my client rep deals with every day.

[Ardesco]

You could always mess about with open source technologies (Apache, PHP, MySQL) They seem to be getting a bit of attention at the moment and I have seen quite a few PHP roles popping up.

Won't cost you anything to start playing with it and you should get a decent feel for it with a couple of books and a few evenings.

[rootsnall]

The skillsets are probably what I'm looking to discuss, XML/XSL, AJAX support, Flex etc all look interesting but jobserve searches pull these up next to .NET, Java, ASP etc, which is not a one-week course, and probably not my cup-o-tea. Some less technical roles ask for Ajax experience without the rest.

There seems to be some buzz around the creation of dashboards at the moment, which is what I'm currently working on - but won't be coding, I'm just deciding how things should look, what the IA is and what functionalities should be provided, based on client-customer requirements.

There's no point me wading into programming if I'm not going to have the taste for it - and there's no way of knowing that unless I take the plunge into a language that serves as a great starting point and teaches good first principles. And then there's the matter of how long it would take to be proficient.

I think I'm at the crossroads of: 'more technical or more artistic or more strategy or more marketing' - and I hate all the mngmt BS & politics that my client rep deals with every day.

I think you should knock off for the day and go and have a few pints !

I think the chance to pick up new skills and change what you are doing tend to crop up by chance and I think you've just got to grab one when it comes along and run with it and see how things work out.

[sasguru]

I think I'm at the crossroads of: 'more technical or more artistic or more strategy or more marketing' - and I hate all the mngmt BS & politics that my client rep deals with every day.

That dichotomy is wrong. It's a hard balancing act but don't do either or. If you enjoy the artistic side, stick with it. Money won't compensate you for lack of fulfillment. Just add other skills while keeping your core ones intact. User interface/usability issues are largely underestimated in my opinion - just look at Microtulipe products. You are luckier than you think, RH.