Career Path (Job Titles)

["Mike Naughton" <mnaughton@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

Here's a discussion question (if this is the wrong list, I apologize &
hope someone will point me in the right direction):

We're a manufacturing company  with 4 programmers working mostly in RPG &
CL, but some VB & Lotus Notes, and Java probably in the future. We tend to
develop all our own stuff, though we do buy tools & utilities
occasionally, and our days are split between maintaining & enhancing old
systems and writing new ones.

Right now we have two job titles: "AS/400 Programmer/Analyst" & "Senior
AS/400 Programmer/Analyst". We're the type of place where to get a salary
increase you need a title change, and we've got a couple of "Senior"
people who the boss is considering moving up, but he doesn't know what to
call them. His impression is that "System Analyst" implies not so much
programming, and the  job function would still involve a lot of
programming. Basically, he wants a title that implies knowledge of more
languages and/or more in-depth knowledge of particular languages, along
with the ability to integrate programs on different platforms, develop new
application systems, etc. Basically, what we all are doing now, but more,
better, faster.

Does anyone have any suggestions for possible titles? Are there any good
references for this sort of thing? Are there reasonably standard job
description/titles in the midrange world?

Thanks very much!

Mike Naughton
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Judd Wire, Inc.
124 Turnpike Road
Turners Falls, MA  01376
413-863-4357 x444
mnaughton@juddwire.com