Many begin their acquaintance with the IT field with an overview of the professions that exist and are in demand on the market. At the same time, you can stumble upon a lot of incomprehensible abbreviations and job titles. The essence of some is logically clear, while others can lead to a slight stupor.
Below I will list the professions that can be found in most IT companies. It is customary to use English names for most positions.
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) – in other words, the CEO of the company. Sets the general vector of development and defines the main strategic points. Represents the company at top-level meetings.
CFO (Chief Financial Officer) – financial director of the company. Responsible for financial planning, cash flow and reserve management of the company.
COO (Chief Operating Officer) – director of current operations. Deals with day-to-day issues that arise in the company.
CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) – Commercial Director. Responsible for the company's commercial strategy. The main areas in which the CCO works are related to sales, large projects, sales control, and the company's marketing policy.
CTO (Chief technology officer) – director, who is responsible for the development of new products and the introduction of technologies. Sets the vectors of the services provided by the company, is responsible for the promotion, training or retraining of employees.
Lead Generator – is engaged in the search for potential customers and, at the first response from them, transfers contacts to the Sales Manager.
Sales Manager – responsible for selling the company's services. His salary directly depends on the number of contracts concluded with clients.
Account Manager – account Manager. Draws up cooperation agreements, is responsible for the receipt of money from clients, communicates on financial issues.
Scrum Master – organizes the workflow in the team if the project is carried out according to the flexible Scrum methodology. Monitors the correct progress of sprints, helps to solve current problems.
Crysis Manager – helps to get out of crisis situations. He is usually hired for a short period of time (a blockage on a project or a general crisis in the company), works as a freelancer. Therefore, he can look at the situation from the outside, with an “unscrubbed” eye and push management to make tough decisions: for example, dismissal of inefficient employees, changing team players, redirecting financial streams.
Project Manager – manages a project or several projects at the same time. Is the link between the team and the customer or his representative (product owner). Prepares technical specifications, transfers intermediate results to the client, deals with reporting.
Product Manager – is developing one big product. He manages the team that works on such a project, interacts with investors, is responsible for presentations and release.
Delivery Manager – works in the same team with the Product Manager and is responsible for the timely and high-quality delivery of the product to the client. The essence of the Delivery Manager is to control the intermediate results of the product at the end of sprints / milestones (parts into which the project is divided). Mandatory skills of such a manager, except for managerial ones, – technical. He must understand whether the project is working correctly from the inside, have the competence to point out visible errors.
Delivery Manager also keeps track of team time spent.
SysAdmin – maintains the operation of the local network and software in the company.
DevOps – serves cloud hosting, ensures the availability and efficient operation of projects with a high load.
UX (User Experience) Designer – responsible for the user experience of the product. Thinks through the logic of the project, creates prototypes, tests projects on real people.
UI (User Interface) Designer – responsible for the visual implementation of the product. Selects style: works with color, fonts, visual perception and content.
Graphic Designer – makes designs for individual graphic products: logos, branding, icons, illustrations, buttons, etc., and can also work in the design of printed products.
Product Designer – develops a design for a single product (for example, a startup, an application, an administration system), while concentrating on the main functions and problems of this product, and its improvement.
Motion Designer – works with interactive elements of the product. For example, he makes animation for the site, or presents to the customer with the help of a video how his application will work after the release.
VR / AR Designer – The designer is engaged in the development of products for virtual or augmented reality. The profession is new, but every year is gaining momentum.
Art Director – head of the design department. Sets the main vectors of development for designers, moderates their work, takes part in collective discussions, meets with clients.
Developers can conditionally be divided into several areas.
Web Developers – create products for the web.
Mobile developers – create applications for smartphones.
Most popular division:
Front End Developer – designs the visual appearance of the interface.
Back End Developer – configures how the site mechanics work.
The difference between a front and a back is easy to explain using a watch as an example. The way they look: dial, hands, shape and color is the front. And bek – this is a watch mechanism: gears, bolts and so on.
Tech Lead / Team Lead – development team leader. Depending on what qualities are emphasized: technical or managerial skills, the necessary prefix is added to the word Leader.
Separately, we can distinguish developers-architects who write large systems, those who create software and guys who make embedded systems, for example “smart home”, autopilots for cars or other devices, etc.
Testing – checks the operation of the product as a whole and in parts, while identifying defects. Such testing does not require special preparation.
QC (Quality Control) – analyzes the test results, checks the product for compliance with the basic requirements prescribed in the documentation.
QA (Quality Assurance) – checks the work of testers and QC, can not only identify bugs or other defects, but also suggest ways to eliminate them. QA is a broader concept and he can do his own and two previous jobs in the complex.
Business Analyst – communicates with the client, identifies the main problems and needs and broadcasts this information to the team.
SMM (Social Media Marketing) – a person who promotes a company / product in social networks.
Marketing Specialist – promotes the company on the Internet, increases its overall rating and reputation, analyzes the service market and competitors.
Targetologist (English target — target) – a specialist who is engaged in setting up targeted advertising. Such advertising is designed for a specific audience, which is expected to have a high percentage of interest in the content. The implementation most often goes through the most popular social networks: Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, VK.
Copywriter – is engaged in writing texts for the blog and social networks of the company.
UX (User Experience) Writer – writes texts for user interfaces. The main task of such a person is to make the interface more understandable and enjoyable with the help of text hints.
Technical Writer – adapts the technical documentation for the average user.
HR (Human Resources, HR) – is engaged in the search and selection of employees for the company, as well as maintaining a normal psychological climate in the team.
Office Manager – in charge of running the office. It is this person who is responsible for the promised tea, coffee, cookies and other joys.
Sometimes companies have a separate recruiter , whose duties include simply selecting the necessary candidates, and the Happiness Manager (manager of happiness) takes care of the rest of the provision of the office. He provides employees with everything they need, talks with each of them, is responsible for involvement in team building and a friendly atmosphere.
Also for developers, designers, testers, and sometimes even for managers, there is a separate gradation in terms of skills and knowledge, as well as experience. They are divided into: Junior, Middle and Senior, respectively, as specialists of primary, secondary and high levels.
This division is rather relative. If you can still catch a clearer difference between the Junior (Junior, June) and Middle levels, then it is not always clear by what criteria a specialist can be considered a Senior (Senior).
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