SeniorITy expectations

An article in today's Economic Times mentions about the shrinking renumeration figures for fresh engineering graduates and contrasts it to the rising salaries of IT professionals with 2-6 years experience.

The article goes on to justify the reason behind the shrinking renumeration figures for freshers, with the comment "One needs to spend a lot on training freshers, and it takes a while before they become billable. " Surprisingly it does not try to justify the trend of rising salaries for experienced IT pros.

While it is true that experienced people expect more salary, it is equally true that at times employers also expect a lot in return from experienced IT pros.

Let me try to justify this by sharing a sample job responsibilities of a Senior Level IT Specialist.

• Software design, engineering and/or development for various IT infrastructures and applications.
• Engineering evaluation and/or test of materials (H/W and/or S/W components, products and systems)
• Preparation of detailed specifications from which programs will be written, system software implemented or equipment fabricated or installed.
• Application of configuration management procedures and tools for changes to the operating system files and software.
• Performance of associated process studies, research investigations and requirements analyses of all aspects of communications and telecommunications system components.
• Participation in the development and preparation of documentation for, but not limited to, procedural, program and user documentation.
• Designs, develops, installs, implements, improves, documents and/or maintains software; monitors standards and procedures and integrates systems from design through operations.
• 24x7 Level 3 support, on rotation
• Experience in conducting and writing post-mortems and developing root cause analyses.
• Works with clients to ensure successful system implementation; may assist in user training.
• May provide guidance and assists in training of less experienced staff.
• May research or write portions of technical proposals.
• Maintains state-of-the-art knowledge and compiles information into recommendations and analyses.
• Frequent use of computer, and computer assisted tools.
• Operates regularly under demanding deadlines and subject to heavy workloads.

The point to note here is that more that technical skills, most employers seem to be looking for senior people who can handle a variety of tasks and more importantly will not crumble under pressure. And you can acquire this trait only after spending a couple (?) of years in the industry.