A Career in SharePoint
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The document provides information about pursuing a career in SharePoint. It discusses common SharePoint job roles like administrator, developer, business analyst, and project manager. It also provides details on the typical responsibilities and skills required for each role. The document aims to help readers understand the different paths they could take in a SharePoint career and determine if this field is a good fit for them. It emphasizes that gaining hands-on experience through training, user groups, and test environments is important for career development in SharePoint.
A Career in SharePoint
- 1. A Career in SharePoint HOTCOE August, 2013 Matthew J. Bailey, MCTS
- 2. I consider myself a “SharePoint All-Rounder”. My job tasks vary including Administration, Development, Training, Analysis, UAT and Project Management. My job changes daily based on the crazy life of an IT fellow in corporate America, but it keeps things interesting! I am have worked with SharePoint for almost six years. I do not consider myself an expert but have a fair amount of knowledge with the technology and currently use it daily in my career. If I don’t know an answer to one of your questions, I will try to find it out or point you in the right direction! SharePoint Business Analyst & IT Project Manager JDSU Matthew J. Bailey, MCTS Me, me, me…
- 3. You, you, you! What do you want to be when you grow up? • Who is at the beginning of their career in either IT or SharePoint (either new to the IT industry completely, new or returning to the job market, recently graduated or changing from a different career) ? • Who has already started exploring or has a career in IT but are new to SharePoint ? • Who is already involved with SharePoint and looking to enhance their skills or change job roles ? What have you done so far? • Who does not fall into any of these categories ? Do tell…
- 4. What is SharePoint? “A web application platform developed by Microsoft” - Wikipedia • Swiss army knife of technology for content management, websites, search, etc. • A mixture of “OOTB (out of the box)” functionality with the option to build upon this with and integrate with other systems • Built upon the Microsoft .NET stack of technologies, although changing to a more open source approach with JavaScript, CSS & HTML5 • More information can be found at: http://www.discoversharepoint.com/ ?
- 5. Common Uses of SharePoint What can I do with SharePoint? • Company intranets • Document management • Team collaboration portals • External customer portals • Workflow scenarios & document approval • Search • Project Management • Public internet sites where publishing / multi-authoring is needed √
- 6. Companies Using SharePoint Over 78% percent of Fortune 500 companies used SharePoint in 2011 • Usually larger companies • Insurance • Financial • Manufacturers • Healthcare (some) • Government – (Usually requires clearance, time for the “Snowden story”) • Office 365 can be used by smaller companies, but work is usually limited to smaller amounts vs. long term or permanent job opportunities
- 7. Why Choose a Career Using SharePoint? Umm… cause I like need a job You enjoy consistently learning new technologies and enjoy IT Job security & stability, a lot of openings and probably will be for at least 3-5 years minimum Opportunities are usually with larger companies that have good benefits & pay $$$ – because mortgage payments don’t pay themselves!
- 8. SharePoint Job Roles / Functions Current typical SharePoint job roles * • Administrator / Engineer • Developer • Business Analyst • Project Manager • Power User • Architect (Solution Architect or Infrastructure Architect) • Other (Designer, Trainer, etc.) * interpretive, find example job descriptions from job websites
- 9. SharePoint Job Roles by Percentage Administrator / Engineer Developer Business Analyst Project Manager Architect (description varies) Support / Help Desk (entry-level, not dev or admin support) Power User / SharePoint Knowledge Other (trainer, design, random) * Estimations based on job postings from web sites in August, 2013 for the USA only
- 10. Job Descriptions Can Vary The following are guidelines of job descriptions but not definitive rules. Each company has unique needs and different people involved in the process of posting the job requirements so job listings can vary.
- 11. Before We Begin Our Demos & Review of Detailed Job Descriptions…
- 12. Patience is a Virtue SharePoint may seem overwhelming at first but remember we all started learning it somewhere. StudyTime Help
- 13. SharePoint Power User / Skills • Will usually be a part of another job function such as: • Department Manager • Administrative Assistant • Team Leader • Legal profession • Analyst • Understand how SharePoint works from a workflow, repository, data storage & collaboration tool
- 14. • Lists • Libraries • Term store / managed metadata • Search • InfoPath • User Profiles / My Sites • Page Layouts • Publishing • Pages • Security / Permission levels • Web parts Demo – SharePoint User / SharePoint Skills
- 15. SharePoint Help Desk / Support • As with many help desk positions, opportunities are shrinking due to offshoring and IT budget cuts • In most cases these jobs will only include some SharePoint job functions and require supporting other technologies a business uses as well • You will need a strong understanding of all end user functions as well as some basic administration skills • You most likely will be often forwarding questions to more experienced SharePoint professionals I will be skipping over a demo of this job description.
- 16. SharePoint Business Analyst • Job growth is starting to increase • A newer job role to the SharePoint industry • Job title can be quite varied and not always mean the same thing • Usually will include job functions such as: • Understanding what SharePoint can do as a technology • Understand the difficulty of creating different types of solutions • Meeting with end users and stakeholders to understand their needs and how SharePoint can help them • Being a liaison between developers, end users, administrators and others to work with projects • Create documentation such as test cases, functional documents, technical documents, process flow charts, cost savings analysis, etc.
- 17. Demo – SharePoint Business Analyst • Business Requirements • Meeting with end users • Workflow diagrams • Functional documents • Testing scripts • Offering suggestions and creating ideas for new projects
- 18. SharePoint Project Manager • Be persistent and consistently stay on top of tasks • Must be able to deal with many different types of people and personality types • Handle stressful situations, keep projects on time and in budget (can be much harder than it sounds) • Require skills such as Microsoft Project (or similar) • Balance your dependency on other’s technical talent and your level of technical skills (i.e., you will become a much better Project Manager if you understand the technology and won’t always be reliant on others) I will be skipping over a demo of this job description.
- 19. SharePoint Administrator / Engineer • Monitoring, troubleshooting, patching & upgrades to servers • Possess skills similar to a “detective” to troubleshoot issues • Cloud & virtualization technologies • Internet server (IIS) configuration and understanding • Active Directory and different types of authentication • Networking experience such as TCP/IP, DNS, firewalls, security, SAN, routers, backups • Scripting / programming ability with languages such as PowerShell to automate manual processes (i.e., server installations, creating users, etc.) • Understands some architecture (i.e., how many servers are needed and what processes should be running on each server) • Knowledge of complimentary database technologies such as SQL server • Security!!!
- 20. • ULS logs • PowerShell • Active Directory • Security – server • Permissions - user • SQL Server Management • Install solutions • Monitoring / reports • Architecture / topology • Server performance • Random troubleshooting, • Azure & Office 365 • Web Applications • Service Applications • Term store / metadata • Search • InfoPath • User Profiles / My Sites • Virtualization • Storage (SAN, VNS, VNX ) • Claims & ADFS • IIS • Microsoft Core technologies • Backups & restore Demo – SharePoint Administrator / Engineer
- 21. SharePoint Developer • The SharePoint development role is changing toward more of an open source HTML 5/CSS concept, however most jobs will still require a good understanding of .net & C# • Be very good at detailed, analytical, troubleshooting type of work between different programming languages technologies that work with SharePoint • Understand the differences between built in functionality that can be implemented simply and the need for custom coding • The ability to test and ensure programs you have developed function properly • A varied skill set of the following programming languages & environments: • .NET & C# • InfoPath, SharePoint Designer • JavaScript (jQuery, mobile JavaScript frameworks, SPServices) • PowerShell
- 22. • SharePoint Designer • Custom page layouts • InfoPath • Design with CSS/HTML 5 • Visual Studio • C# - Web parts • Creating custom solutions such as event receivers, web parts, complex workflows, data repositories, web services, etc. • Web Services • SQL Server Management Studio • Install solutions • Azure & Office 365 • JavaScript – Client side development & app model • ULS logs • PowerShell • Microsoft Core technologies • Service Applications • Term store / metadata • Search • User Profiles / My Sites • Custom features / apps • Farm vs. sandboxed solutions • 3rd party tools (Nintex, K2, etc.) Demo – SharePoint Developer
- 23. SharePoint Architect • Traits / skills that would be good – detective, etc • Capacity planning • Topology • Integration with other systems • Define the relationship between the physical and logical architecture Determine when and how to use custom solutions Define the deployment process Subject Matter Export The best way to create and build custom solutions Establish best practices & governance
- 24. SharePoint Architect - Infrastructure • Best practices in setting up server farms and deciding which processes should go where • Understanding performance and how powerful your resources will need to be as well as how many servers will be needed Demo – SharePoint Architect SharePoint Architect Solution Developer • Offering ideas to solve business challenges • Knowledge of best practices on how to build specific types of solutions • Mentoring or training others in SharePoint (usually development) • Expert level C#/JavaScript SharePoint & .NET development
- 25. How Do I Know a Career in SharePoint is Right for Me? • You are open to committing a lot of your time to your career • You are open to always learning new technologies • You like to be analytical, work hard, work with people (or pretend to at least – lol) • You can be highly detailed and learn computer skills
- 26. Where Are You in the Decision Process of Pursuing a SharePoint Career? *NOTE: Wherever you are is OK! • If you need to think about it, no worries. You can check my slides and website for more information later: http://bit.ly/1ejNUWH • If you don’t feel this career might be right for you, that is alright too. • If you are sure you are ready to get started and commit to learning more about SharePoint and exploring a career in it let’s get started.
- 27. Creating our Career Plan • Where are you at now? • What is your end goal? • What is your plan to get there? • What will your plan include: • College courses • Online video training • Tutor • Books • User groups • In person training & conferences • Test environment to experiment in *IMPORTANT! • Create a realistic timelines • How do you learn best? Immersion, reading, videos, etc. ? • What is going to make you stand out? (certifications, examples of work) • Search job sites such as Dice.com, LinkedIn, Indeed and others
- 28. Video User Groups Tutor Live Training - Conferences College Job - Real life Other Books Sample Career Plan Components* This is a sample training plan for myself, create your own based on how you learn best.
- 29. Final Thoughts… No one became an expert overnight It is ok to reassess things as you go Don’t get frustrated and quit If you are not able to figure something out, make a note of it, move on to something else and when you find help ask questions Feel free to email or contact me later if you need help
- 30. Feel free to connect: @matthewjbailey1 http://www.matthewjbailey.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjbailey1 [email protected] Download my slides and get started at: http://bit.ly/1ejNUWH