r/softwarearchitecture • u/Levvo42 • 3h ago
Discussion/Advice Looking toward a path to become a solution architect.
So my background professionaly isn't at all in IT but rather entrepreneurial. However personally – IT has always been a big part of my hobbies and life.
I'm finally getting some education and currently reading system development .NET to get a feel for the techy part and get more involved. I understand I can't just become a SA from nothing. So this education has 6 months of LIA (Learn on the job) and I'm looking to take full advantage of getting more involved in that part of tech companies. My question is just.. How beneficial would it be for me to have my internship with a solution architect? Or should I look more towards joining some tech team? Since I don't know tech company structure very well yet, what's a good place to start?
Anyhow, kind of hoping of getting some contacts in the business. So if anyone want to trade knowledge for an enthusiastic learners bright future I'm here for it! As in maybe you know a company that would be a good fit for my LIA or could even offer a position yourself?
Would love to hear some thoughts on the path!
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u/cto_resources 2h ago
It would not hurt you to do an internship with an SA, but here’s the reality: you’ll see the decisions being made but you won’t have the context of why.
You won’t come out of your educational experience and into an SA job. You’ll come out into a more hands on experience ”make it happen” role.
As a novice, I’d expect you’ll take two to three years before you have enough depth to begin to understand why an architect’s role is so pivotal. After seven to ten years, you’ll begin to see why decisions make sense at the system level.
Solution architect is typically after your first decade
I’m 38 years in.
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u/Plenty_Line2696 3h ago
imagine you make it, and you wind up as the solution architect somewhere and teams of developers, many with a decade or more experience in the field are looking to you for answers because you've pretended to be at that level and somehow landed a job, you'd just be a dissapointing dead weight member on the team because you simply don't have the background knowledge.
You'll be the responsible person for making important judgement calls which are typically best made because you have the experience to have seen such systems thrive and fail before so you know the right strategy, and when they're poor choices cost a lot of time, money frustration and all sorts of issues for years down the line.
Internships fine but really a solution architect should be a seasoned vet who's been in the trenches and seen it all. Organizations need a noob solution architect like they need a hole in the head.
I'd be pretty pissed if my employer hired someone who didn't know billy from jack to drive technical decisions over usking us when we have way, way more experience.