What is the career path for a SAS programmer? 1

[cosmid]

My manager has recently asked us to complete a performance plan. In it, we are asked:

1.what kind of skills we like to develop; what position we would like to pursue.

2.what areas we would like to target for improvement.

3.future training needs?

4.any certifications or degrees we would like to pursue?

5.list five key performance goals to accomplish this year.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[ChrisW75]

God I hate those things.
REally, we can't answer that for you, the idea is it's supposed to make you think about what you want to do and where you want to be in X years (usually 5). If you don't know, that can be an answer too. I've mostly drifted through my career, keeping my eyes open for opportunities to learn new stuff as and when they arise.

For this, look back over the time you've been working there and think of any situations where you would have liked to be able to perform a task but didn't have the skills to do it (maybe some SQL, or working on a different system that you're not familiar with) but which would have made your life easier, or even just more interesting. If you have an Oracle database which SAS links to for instance, learning some Oracle skills, PL/SQL etc can be a real bonus as it allows you to use that system more efficiantely rather than being stuck in SAS the whole time.
The "SAS Report Writing: A programming approach" is a really handy course to do as well, it covers proc tabulate and proc report in detail, and is a very helpful course. Also "SAS Colour Graphics" is another good course covering alot of the SAS/Graph procedures (assuming you have those).
Outside of programmign skills look at any other complementary skills you might want to develope such as analysis techniques, statistical processes etc etc.
Also personal development, if you're keen to one day get into management or become a team leader, some leadership skills courses would be good.
Really you need to think about where you are now, and where you want to be.
It's hard, it sucks, and I'm glad I don't really have to do this crap any more, however for some people it can really be helpful to define goals.


Chris
Business Analyst, Code Monkey, Data Wrangler.
SAS Guru.

 

[cosmid]

Thanks for the input! Unfortunately, I can only see where I am right now and I don't have any goals. I am not sure where SAS takes me. I just want to see where other SAS programmers are after they have experience with their first job.

 

[ChrisW75]

Well, I started working at a bank doing branch performance reports using SAS on a mainframe.
From there I moved to a marketing/Customer Relationship Management company and learned some Oracle skills.
From there I moved to a smaller company doing list processing where I learned more about that side of SAS processing (data cleansing etc). After that I moved into government, more reporting work, learned more about ODS and making pretty reports. More Oracle stuff, added some VB skills and also did a bunch of support work, learned to deal with other peoples problems, and problem people .
Now I'm at another customer analysis place backing up my SAS skills with mapping packages and analysis tools like CART and MARS.
I've never really pushed forwards to a goal, so my reviews have always been a little difficult, however my method was just to identify a couple of complementary skills I'd like to add to my repertoire, and put those in as my goals.

Chris
Business Analyst, Code Monkey, Data Wrangler.
SAS Guru.

 

[cosmid]

I see. Honestly, I really hate office work. Is there any work at home jobs for SAS programmer? Work is a torture to me. But I need the money.

Grr...I need to find some SAS books to see what kind of skills I want to develop. VB sounds good. I have no idea about ODS, maybe I should put that down. Then there's CART and MARS...don't know what these are. hm..seems I have a lot to put down. hehe...I can't wait when I retire.

thanks again for the help!

how is the kid?

 

[ChrisW75]

You CAN do some work from home if your office is up for that, it depends on your work ethic though. If they think you're going to slack off, it's not going to happen. If YOU think you're going to slack off, you shouldn't ask for it.
ODS is SAS' Output Delivery System and allows oyu to produce much nicer looking reports straight out of your programs, very handy to learn about.
CART and MARS are entirely separate analysis packages produced by Salford Systems (based in the US I believe). They're used for modelling work.

The kid is good thanks, 5 weeks old today. It's a boy, and he's currently sleeping in 3-4 hours stretches, so that's pretty good.

Chris
Business Analyst, Code Monkey, Data Wrangler.
SAS Guru.

 

[cosmid]

haha...congratz! The first few months are very tiring. You can hardly get any sleep. But it is all worth it

I got my new SAS book. I should finish reading it and do more practices before I ask any more stupid questions here. And also try to look for another job where I can work at home. The reason I like to work at home is because I work best at night time. Usually from midnight to 6:00 AM. I can't wait to answer a forum here intead of asking questions all the time. Conggratz again!