The Tech Career Guide
Tags: career, webdev, beginners, discuss
Published: 2019-05-21 14:04:01

---
title: The Tech Career Guide
published: true
description: The tech industry is so large there are any number of paths to take your career. This is a roll-up of a handful of them. 
tags: career, webdev, beginners, discuss
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/fyvh9m4alp8e0b2tps8i.jpeg 
---

There have been so many wonderful posts about various directions to take your technical career that I wanted to put them all in one place!

# Consulting

This was my post on consulting and the diverse roles and skills that you use in the field. In it, I discuss the work I do and the way in which I found myself in this career. In my mind, this is the variety pack of technology careers.

{% link https://dev.to/laurieontech/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-technology-consultant-1j60 %}

If you're looking for a different approach to that career type, Nader Dabit did a great write up on his experiences. As a consultant, he was on his own and acting as a specialist. [The Prosperous Software Consultant](https://hackernoon.com/the-prosperous-software-consultant-5dc8d705c5dd)

# Individual Contributor
The role of "IC" is what we normally use to refer to developers who are a ways into their career and are not acting as managers. There is constant debate about how well defined these paths are in various companies, and whether they are recognized appropriately. The posts below are various takes on what it means to be a technical lead.
{% link https://dev.to/jamesmh/whats-the-difference-between-a-senior-and-lead-developer-1pl2 %}

{% link https://dev.to/backendandbbq/what-does-a-tech-lead-do-1cpj %}

{% link https://dev.to/pawel_ledwon/whats-the-role-of-an-engineering-team-lead--47hc %}

# UX Engineering
A few weeks ago Emma wrote a great post on the somewhat unknown area of UX engineering. A midpoint between design and development, this role is all about ownership of the user experience and interfacing between a number of different teams. 
{% link https://dev.to/emmawedekind/ux-engineering-3hem %}

# UI Design
The artist of the technical world! Being a UI designer is a combination of psychology, art and attention to detail. This is a great post highlighting the benefits of this job. If you agree with the points outlined it might just be the field for you.
{% medium https://medium.muz.li/why-is-ux-ui-designer-the-best-job-in-the-world-91bbfe12b6da %}

# Site Reliability Engineer
Often called an SRE, this field is the Hulk of backend developers. Their focus is to keep everything running smoothly no matter the traffic spikes or dependency outages. This first post Molly dives into some of the skills that help her succeed.
{% link https://dev.to/molly_struve/what-it-means-to-be-a-site-reliability-engineer-32ki %}

Another great post on this topic is by Alice Goldfuss. In it, she discusses the field and her experiences. She also dives into the fact that roles titled "SRE" can differ greatly in their job descriptions.[How to get into SRE](https://blog.alicegoldfuss.com/how-to-get-into-sre/)

# Security
Another interesting field is computer security. This is a large field, and there are even more specialties within it. This post talks about some of the ways to gain experience in the field so that you can start exploring the available career paths.
{% medium https://medium.freecodecamp.org/so-you-want-to-work-in-security-bc6c10157d23 %}

A more specific guide, focused on cybersecurity, is available as well. This one talks about the path to success in this field and even dives into available certifications.
{% medium https://medium.com/@AkshaySharmaUS/how-to-start-a-career-in-cybersecurity-and-how-to-become-an-expert-5f8f8e7ce42a %}

# Developer Relations 
This is the hot new field, right? Developer Relations, or Evangelists or Advocates, they have so many names! This field is all about being an internal company advocate for the developers who use your platform and finding out what they need. It's almost like consulting in some ways but the client vs. colleague relationship is reversed.
{% link https://dev.to/dabit3/7-tips-for-breaking-into-devrel-7jk %}

# Engineering Manager
Many think of management as the ultimate destination for all who travel the career ladder, but that's not really fair. Being a manager should be a conscious decision with the full knowledge that it takes a different skill set than an individual contributor path does.
{% medium https://medium.com/@CodeFellows/making-the-transition-from-software-engineer-to-manager-3a12b11efe79 %}

# Meta 
Regardless of what direction you decide to go, whether you specialize are not, here are a couple of posts about growing your development career. Whatever that looks like!
{% link https://dev.to/jamesmh/the-stages-of-your-software-development-career-2dd %}
{% link https://dev.to/maxwell_dev/the-career-adventures-of-johnny-javascript-1cc3 %}

Oh, and see a career path you like better than the one you have now? I might recommend starting here. It's never too late.
{% medium https://medium.com/s/story/the-ultimate-checklist-for-anyone-considering-a-career-switch-1f0a544c5b39 %}

The best part is this list is incomplete. There are so many more career paths in this industry than the ones listed here. Pop into the comments to add your own!