Job concentration change..

Question

There is a potential offer at the company which I just started. I am still on contract pending hire, and they have a person leaving the team that supports Lawson (HR, Payroll) and some other related applications/systems. Their original intent was to put me on the regular support staff which is mostly developing, but much supporting applications. Both jobs use the same technology except there is more variety in the HR/Payroll gig. My two fears are 1) getting stuck, which if I enjoy it and it is not a career dead-end would be OK. and 2) just not programming as much, which would at least temporarily be the case in both situations.

So, with many counselors are wars won; what's your counsel?

Answer 1

on one hand, on a resume, your last job tends to define you.

on the other hand, taking a job that's not your primary focus can sometimes be very broadening.

For instance, I was primarily a software developer and took a job in tech support for a while and found it to be a wonderful experience and made me a much better developer.

Answer 2

If your goal is to become an awesome programmer you should take the job with more programming- practice makes perfect after all. If you just like the industry/techy nature, I wouldn't worry about how it looks on your resume- you can play up anything in an interview for a further job.

At the end of the day I'd choose the one that sounds more "fun"- if they're similar technologies/pay, that's what matters.

Answer 3

From my personal experience as a long time Lawson technical consultant, I would recommend the HR/PR gig. Getting the "functional" experience of those applications will greatly increase your chance for future jobs involving Lawson, especially if you one day choose to go the independent consultant route. Project Managers for Lawson implementations seem to place far more importance on functional specific experience than on broad technical experience with Lawson.

I'm not saying I agree with this approach ... I think a team needs people of both types personally ... but that's my recommendation.