Ideal Jobs

Four of the team members from the Hex Clan remain steadfast in their choice of ideal jobs. This is excellent as it demonstrates confidence in their personal preferences. However, upon more research, one of the team members has decided to change their ideal job.

Liane Wong

Product Owners and Solution Architects are akin to different sides of the same coin. According to Conley (2020), in any organisation exists two metaphorical sandboxes: the business sandbox and the technology sandbox. Product Owners belong in the business sandbox, while Solution Architects belong in the technology sandbox. Initially, I believed that with my existing business degree, with an additional information technology degree, it seems fitting to choose Product Owner as my ideal job. However, upon closer examination of the requirements of the occupation, I have concluded that I have more enthusiasm for the technical aspect of projects.

My research efforts in assignment two have piqued my interest, specifically in cybersecurity, as I realised that my personality traits, cautiousness, and attention-to-detail might be suitable for cybersecurity professions. Additionally, a global increase in demand for cybersecurity is a great motivating factor in my ideal job change.

Salaries and Demand

*Data obtained from seek.com.au- Career Advice
*As of 26/10/2021

The first bar chart displays the median salary in Australia in the thousands for each team member’s ideal job. The second bar chart displays the current job opportunities (postings) of each team member’s ideal job in Australia. This information was obtained from similar job titles on Seek.com.au – Career Advice.

It appears that Security Solution Architect has the highest median salary of $180k per annum, followed by Senior Penetration Tester and Java Back-End Remote Engineer of $130k per annum, Senior Front-End Developer and lastly, C++ software engineer of $110k per annum.

First impressions indicate that the job title ‘Security Solution Architect’ is the most lucrative. However, considering other factors that lead to this, this job title will require a significant number of years in cyber security and general IT experience. Additionally, a master’s degree in Cybersecurity may be a prerequisite to attain such a position (Staff Writers 2019). Furthermore, Cybersecurity as an industry is experiencing unprecedented growth due to increasing cyberattacks globally. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Global Digital Trust Insights 2021, 55% of company executives project to boost their cybersecurity budgets, and at least 51% are hiring full-time cyber staff (Drexel 2021).

A similar position to the one above is ‘Senior Penetration Tester’. On seek.com.au, these types of roles can be grouped together with ‘Security Analyst’ type roles. As elaborated above on the demand in Cybersecurity, these types of roles will continue to thrive. In fact, the penetration testing industry is projected to reach USD$3.1 billion globally by 2017 (Wood, 2021).

A cursory examination suggests that the positions ‘Senior Front-End Developer’, ‘C++ Software Engineer’ and ‘Java Back-End Remote Engineer’ are similar in nature. ‘Front-End Developers’ generally prioritize user experience and user design as well as requiring specialization in different IT technical skills (Gallagher, 2020). Considering the trend of start-ups, the increase in the use of smart devices has fueled the demand for front-end development (Prajapati, 2020). On the other side, ‘C++ Software Engineer’ and ‘Java Back-End Remote Engineer’ can be considered as ‘Back-End Engineers’ or Developers. With back-end work, they prioritize development on the server-side and, at times, work on the integration of disparate systems (Molina, 2021). It is also reasonable to assume that with the increasing demand for ‘Front-End Developers’, the demand for ‘Back-End Developers or Engineers’ will be commensurate (Herasymova, 2021).

Ultimately, all five team members have chosen in-demand vocations as their ideal occupation. The current job market demonstrates robust demand for Information Technology and Computer Science qualified wage earners. With the advent of increasing technologies and data consumption, one can safely speculate that the demand for these job titles will continue to be on-trend by the time all five team members graduate from their courses. However, it will also be prudent to guard against changing demands by being open and flexible to career plan changes.

Technical Skills

Additional Skills Needed

Technical Skills Analysis

At first glance, it is obvious that the primary skills needed for all IT industry-related job titles are the following:

1. Microsoft Windows
2. Building Relationships
3. Microsoft Office

The secondary skills needed by most IT industry-related job titles are the following:

1. LINUX
2. Software Engineering
3. Git
4. Scrum
5. Business Process

The two tables presented shows the technical skills different job titles require. In the first table, the rows rank the skills in demand for IT jobs in 2018 from top to bottom. It is observed that the different job titles require different selections of skills. However, it is interesting to note that two job titles, ‘C++ Software Engineer’ and ‘Java Back-End Remote Engineer’, have somewhat similar technical skill requirements.

Career Paths for Personality Types

Across all five members of the Hex Clan, two personality types are observed.

1. Logistician Personality (ISTJ-A /ISTJ-T)
2. Architect Personality (INTJ-A /INTJ-T)

For Colin Stock, who has a ‘Logistician’ personality, it has been recommended that careers such as military officers, lawyers, judges, police officers and detectives are suitable. This is partly in reason with their strong principles and reliability. Colin chose ‘Senior Penetration Tester’ as his ideal job, which would fall in the same league as the recommended careers as a preference for law and order can indicate a natural inclination to sense potential malicious attacks and loopholes in software systems (NERIS Analytics Limited, n.d.).

Four team members: Gesina Sands, Liane Wong, Michail Christofis and Samuel Saad, presented as ‘Architect’ personalities which is remarkable as problem-solving and rationality are distinct personality traits for this personality type. Examples of recommended careers for this personality are computer programmer, software engineer, computer systems analyst or technical writer. It is evident why these four team members have chosen their ideal jobs (Woods, 2020). The innate ability to comprehend complex principles and translate them into overt and actionable strategies can enable this personality type to be excellent in their chosen ideal jobs (NERIS Analytics Limited, n.d.).

Career Plan Details

The team has completed a career path plan to visualise their goals.

When looking at the career plans across the group, we see that three of the group members have chosen software engineering roles, and two members have chosen roles within the security field. Looking at all the data, we can see that all these roles will need us to have solid analytical skills, problem-solving skills, research skills as well as some management skills. When evaluating target skills that everyone is striving towards, similarities that appear are skills concerned with working in a team environment as well as effective conflict resolution. Looking through everyone’s soft skills, it is evident that well-rounded IT professionals who excel in their field need to be hard-working, creative and have good interpersonal skills to succeed in the workplace.

Everyone’s future career plans require formal education as well as extra IT certification to help stand out when looking for work. Furthermore, certain roles such as Security Solution Architect as chosen by Liane require completion of a master’s degree to be able to work in her chosen specialization. Michail has also indicated that in his career plan, he will be working towards the completion of a master’s degree to further increase his knowledge and job prospects. Colin's career plan as Cybersecurity Penetration Tester requires a considerable number of certifications compared to some of the other career plans to stand out from the crowd. Gesina and Samuels career plans upon completion of undergraduate study are focused on skills in the workplace as well as keeping up to date with relevant certifications in the industry.

In conclusion, though we have all chosen different roles, the pathway to those roles is very similar in that we need formal education, we need critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as creativity. We need emotional intelligence and excellent interpersonal skills to thrive in the workplace, and we need to have a dedicated and diligent approach to our studies and work to be able to succeed in our career plans.

Reference List

• Conley, J 2020, Understanding the Relationship Between the Product Owner, Solution Architect and Cloud Development-Deployment Teams, Samsona Corporation, viewed 27 October 2021, .
• Gallagher, J 2020, Front End Development: Courses, Training, Other Resources, Career Karma, viewed 27 October 2021, < https://careerkarma.com/blog/what-is-a-front-end-developer/>.
• Herasymova, D 2021, Back end & Front end Developer Salary Trends In 2021 [Market Research], Devox Software, viewed 27 October 2021, < https://devoxsoftware.com/blog/back-end-front-end-developer-salary-trends-in-2021/>.
• Molina, G 2021, Backend Engineer vs. Backend Developer: Skills, roles, and responsibilities., DistantJob - Remote Recruitment Agency, viewed 27 October 2021, < https://distantjob.com/blog/backend-engineer-backend-developer/>.
• NERIS Analytics Limited n.d., Career Paths | Architect (INTJ) Personality, 16Personalities, NERIS Analytics Limited, viewed 28 October 2021, < https://www.16personalities.com/intj-careers>.
• ― n.d., Logistician Personality: Career Paths, 16Personalities, NERIS Analytics Limited, viewed 28 October 2021, < https://www.16personalities.com/istj-careers>.
• Prajapati, B 2020, Frontend Developers are Highly in Demand in 2020- Is it True?, Frontend Weekly, viewed 27 October 2021, < https://medium.com/front-end-weekly/frontend-developers-are-highly-in-demand-in-2020-is-it-true-632410390494>.
• SEEK Career Advice n.d., SEEK Career Advice AU, viewed 26 October 2021, < https://www.seek.com.au/career-advice/>.
• Staff Writers 2019, How to Become a Security Architect | Requirements for Security Architect Jobs, CyberDegrees.org, CyberDegrees.org, viewed 27 October 2021, < https://www.cyberdegrees.org/jobs/security-architect/>.
• Wood, L 2021, The Worldwide Penetration Testing Industry is Expected to Reach $3.1 Billion by 2027, www.prnewswire.com, viewed 27 October 2021, < https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-worldwide-penetration-testing-industry-is-expected-to-reach-3-1-billion-by-2027--301395294.html>.
• Woods, B 2020, INTJ Jobs: The Best Careers for INTJ Personalities, Career Karma, viewed 28 October 2021, < https://careerkarma.com/blog/intj-careers/>.