Oh god yes. You want to know the best job in the IT world? Solution Architect Enterprise Architect also works. Those two magical words can mean any of the fo

Oh god yes. You want to know the best job in the IT world? Solution Architect Enterprise Architect also works. Those two magical words can mean any of the following (I've seen them all): 1.) Network infrastructure design. Varies between handing over a Visio diagram to Cisco sales team vs detailed component level design . 2.) Server hardware guy who decides server/nas/vm requirements for the company. Deals with hardware vendors. 3.) Some combination of 1 and 2, but does 90% vendor management. 4.) Software engineer who does integration. 5.) Another visio guy, but this time highish level application workflow design. No programming. More like technical business analyst. 6.) Like the above, but presales focus and client facing. Gets a commision. Like this: http://bit.ly/YlsaWu http://bit.ly/YlsaWu 7.) Lead software engineer with 20+ years experience designing $10M+ software for use in critical real time distributed applications. Delegates coding jobs to different teams. Defines APIs. Defines design patterns. Does coding reviews. Understands entire code base. Excellent knowledge of concurrency and parallelisation design considerations. To put it mildly, there is some ambiguity in the title. But what makes this 'solution architect' so special is recruiters consider it a very senior position that is remunerated accordingly. And here is the kicker that illustrates how poorly some recruiters understand IT roles: Sometimes its not clear if a solution architect role is a software or hardware job. So long as you've got experience as a solution architect you'll tick the recruiters box and your resume will make the short list. Think about that for a second. Dont believe me? http://www.seek.com.au/Job/solution-architect-finance-permanent/in/brisbane-brisbane/24262600 http://www.seek.com.au/Job/solution-architect-finance-perman... So to all IT people out there, I'd suggest if you ever find your job role shifting towards work requiring Visio, try and get a title change to the coveted Solution Architect or Enterprise Architect. It shouldnt be a problem unless you have a very senior person with the same title. Dont demand a pay rise. You'll be well compensated the next time you look for a job. - Alex, Aspiring Solution Architect