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Discussion on: What non-dev IT jobs have you had?

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Vincent Grovestine • Edited

I'm currently living the...er...dream?!

I started my career in backend web development; eventually settling into a tech lead role with a small web agency. Yay, ColdFusion! (Oh, how I do miss those simpler times.)

The second half of my career has been in higher-ed IT, with responsibilities so varied that I've labeled myself an "applied IT Jack-of-all-trades". I do my best to maintain a developer mindset; however, hands-on dev comprises only a tiny portion of my week-to-week taskings:

  • Traditional LAMP-stack dev; CRUD widgets; database design
  • Critique mockups from graphic designer; HTML/CSS refinement; CMS templating
  • ETL; data sync between disparate database systems; basic BI reporting
  • Web software administration and end-user support: CMS, LMS (Moodle), and other purpose-driven packages (eg. PKP Open Journal Systems, Springshare LibGuides)
  • Web content moderation, analytics/stats, and other assorted "webmaster" tasks
  • Digital signage; implementation and content prep
  • Administer shared DVCS (GitLab CE); advocate heavily for its use (a lot of folk work in isolation and don't feel that they "need" version control *grumble*)
  • Retiring in-house legacy applications; Flash content migration (using Twine+Sugarcube for some of this work); cleaning up neglected file servers
  • Web content curation; training staff on CMS software; enforcing brand and design standards
  • Consulting; distilling folks' ideas into actionable plans; translating technical concerns into plain-English for non-tech folk
  • Dabble in digital accessibility and data privacy initiatives
  • Sharepoint; issue tracking; running interference between non-tech staff and other IT units
  • I'm a desktop Linux user in a Microsoft-centric world; blessing and curse of picking apart edge-case issues with MS web products
  • But that doesn't stop folk from asking for Windows and OSX help--printer problems, One Drive and Skype being frequent problems

Now halfway through my work career, I've got the itch to return to the development world in some capacity. I've been an IT generalist for too long! :)