A career path is a method by which employees chart their path within a specific business or industry. It can clear you for advancement opportunities, as well as give you the unique qualifications and skills necessary for that advancement to take place. An Adobe Developer has many career opportunities available. Consequently, it can be overwhelming trying to choose a career path. Mapping out your steps allows you to decide where you want to go, and how you can begin preparing yourself to obtain your goals.
What Does an AEM Developer Do?
Simply put, an AEM Developer designs, develops, and tests software using Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), which is the CMS portion of the Adobe Experience Cloud. It sounds pretty straightforward, but AEM developers need to have experience with CMS development, Java Content Repositories, OSGi, AJAX, and web service creation.
You may be called upon to manage a team of programmers and you will definitely need to interface with multiple departments. Interpersonal skills, along with some knowledge of business marketing will help you manage the different needs of all the stakeholders.
AEM developers often find themselves debugging faulty code or building systems from scratch to meet specific programming objectives, so you must have advanced programming skills and most companies want at least five years of programming experience, with at least some previous experience with Adobe in a business setting.
So how can you get that experience and work your way into a lucrative career as an AEM developer?
1. Set goals for yourself.
As an Adobe Developer, you have options regarding your career path. Within the Adobe Experience Cloud, there are multiple tracks. For example, you can choose to focus on product management, research labs, or cloud technology.
The typical career path for an Adobe developer is as follows:
Developer → Senior Developer → Lead → Architect
Take time to familiarize yourself with the possibilities and seek advice from other developers or an AEM Recruiter. Set a goal and begin the process of moving towards it.
2. Know what’s required
After setting goals, you’ll need to make sure you have an understanding of how to meet that goal. Career pathing is good in that it gives you direction, but you still need to know what it takes to stay on that path.
Write down the necessary skills and abilities you’ll need to reach each new position on your career path. Begin looking for ways to develop these abilities. Taking courses, asking to be taught, and looking for a mentor are all ways to gain more insight into how you’ll need to prepare to achieve your goal.
Consider studying for and taking the exam for Adobe Certification. Even though hiring managers will be most interested in your resume, certification can validate your knowledge, especially if you have plenty of experience as a developer but only a short amount of time working specifically with Adobe Experience Manager.
Keep your end goal in mind when making decisions.
Your direction is crucial. Whether a sailor at sea, an arrow in flight, or a trip to see family, direction matters. How else can one end up at the desired destination but by giving great care to the direction they’re going? The same is true regarding your career path. Many people may have a loose idea of what they want to do or where they want to end up, but they rarely make good decisions to help make it a reality.
Rather than making career decisions based on salary, consider how each position will help prepare you to move towards your end goal. TechBridge helps developers with career development and can advise you on how to build your project portfolio.
AEM developers are in high demand and there are currently more jobs available than people to fill them. A career as an AEM developer is both lucrative and rewarding, so if you think you would like a career as an Adobe developer, then take some time to reflect on where you want to go and make decisions to help make it happen.
Goal-oriented decisions keep you from floating around from one position to another, they give you direction. Goal-oriented decisions will always help you move forward towards your end goal. Staying on that path will quickly bring you to the career of your choice!
How Can TechBridge Help?
Our goal is to bridge the gap between business and employee, matching qualified workers with the companies who need them. If you have any further questions or you’re ready to start the recruiting process, contact us today.
