Does changing domain often affect my career?

Question

I started as a C# Developer a year before. Then after 6 months, I got a chance to work in web technologies like Javascript, jQuery, HTML and CSS, along with a C# project. I really enjoyed working in those projects.

3 months ago, I was totally shifted to MongoDB admin due to a shortage. For 1 and a half months I was totally submerged into it, as it was interesting. Then I moved back to web technologies. Now they have asked me to work in hybrid mobile development, which I was interested in.

A few days before, while chatting with my colleague, he raised, "don't change your domain like that. After a year, what will you add as the position in your resume? What kind of developer are you?"

This question really hurts me a lot. I'm nowhere know. Am I in a wrong path by often changing the domain? Does changing domain affect my career?

Answer 1

The answer to this really depends on your career goals. If you're planning to move into bigger, more established enterprise-level environments where everyone has a title and everyone's role fits neatly into a little box, then it's possible that having moved around may negatively affect your ability to land a position in one of those companies.

However, since you say you like learning new things and that you like moving around a lot, you may very well be building up a resume that would be more attractive to smaller, more agile companies and startups. If you work in a company like I do, one that has a smaller feel to it, they're likely going to want people who are smart, who can learn quickly, and who can do whatever is needed in order to get the job done. In smaller organizations, they can't always budget for a dedicated MongoDB admin and a "Java developer" who can only code Java and nothing else. In small companies where I've worked, the most valuable people are those who can do more than just one thing, and the work is interesting because there's always a new challenge to overcome.

With the skills you've listed, it sounds like you're a well rounded person capable of learning quickly and who can fit wherever there is a need. So talk to people in your country who have worked in smaller businesses and find out what they're looking for.

Lastly, consider why your current employer asked you to do all of these things. Ask yourself what would have happened to that employer if you weren't able to fit in where needed. Would they consider you valuable by being able to move around. Also, if the company ever needs to lay people off, are they going to fire the person who can only do 1 thing, or is it going to be the person who can be flexible and move into areas where there exists a need? In my experience, in places I've worked, the people who could do more than 1 job always seemed to have a place in the organization, while people who insisted on doing only 1 thing were the ones who were let go, thanked for their services, and walked out the door.

Answer 2

When I'm hiring or interviewing someone their former titles mean very, very little to me – titles mean different things in different companies. I would be far more interested in a candidate who had a wide range of skills no matter what his or her title(s) were. A candidate with actual experience using both “traditional” databases like MSSQL/Oracle/DB2/MySQL/etc. as well as newer technology like MongoDB is more attractive than someone who only knows how to interact with a single type of database.

As a matter of fact I often encourage people who are about to graduate from university to seriously consider working for smaller companies simply because they will likely be exposed to many more technologies than they will if they go to work for a very large company. I know people who have worked for large companies for years and they are responsible for a single program or even worse – for a part of a single program. They know their program (or their piece of a program) very, very well – but that's all they know.

Someone who has a wide range of experience not only brings all that experience to the table they also make it very apparent they are willing and interested in learning new technologies – a very attractive trait in a software developer.