Career path for SAS programmer

[unnati]

Hello,

Can any expert guide me with career path in SAS. I am debating myself that should i choose SAS Admin career path or should I go with Clinical SAS programmer path. 

Can anyone add some light on this two different path and tell me what are future prospects for SAS ADMIN and CLINICAL SAS PROGRAMMER 

Thank you

[RW9]

Um, not to be blunt, but no. I cannot tell you which to choose as I have no idea about your skills, the availability of work in the area you are in, what future goals you have etc.

As for the future of either, this is speculation.  As a programmer in the clinical area I can't see SAS being dropped anytime soon, no matter how many people rave about R.  Still, its good to have some knowledge of that as well.  As an admin, whilst there are SAS systems, they will need Admins.  I would imagine though there are fewer admin roles than user.

So as a purely hypothetical, throw in the dark, I would say Clinical Programmer is more likely to be available, but at the end of the day the broader your base of knowledge, the better the future will look.

[unnati]

I can give you little background of myself. I have MS in Biotechnology and I have acquire SAS BASE certification so I have little knowledge of SAS Programming plus I have took some training for Clinical SAS as well as SAS Admin. After taking two different training I am confuse that which route should I pursue.

I feel like If I pursue SAS Admin then I can go for SAS Admin position then may be senior SAS admin and done. And if I pursue Clinical SAS programmer then I will end with Senior SAS clinical programmer then may be principle statistical  programmer. (any better suggestion for  this )

As far as future goal I am in same boat as other looking for better paying Job plus I would like to enjoy my work (which I am enjoying in both this field thought training, I don’t have work experience in either of this field). And I am desperately looking to make my career move in this field and looking for job opportunity (I do  have decent paying job right now but I want to move into this field for better option)

I hope this information will help you to guide me more better way.

[RW9]

Well these terms:

"Senior SAS clinical programmer then may be principle statistical  programmer"

Are actually two different roles - although all companies have their own terminology.  And do bear in mind the below is just a loose description, there can be overlaps and differences between companies.

The first (Clinical Programmer) is more database, SDTM, DM focused, so data handling and mapping.  Do you have any database experience, such as Rave, or experience in data management?  There are several levels here possibly, through into management.

The second (Stats Programmer) is more ADaM, analysis, reporting focused.  Do you have any statistical/maths background.  Again, levels through to management.

With the above two there is a chance to go from one to the other, hence broadening your bases, so that is a plus point.  

Admin I don't know too well, we (well me!) tend to do our own admin and have our own systems, but then I am in a small company.  Bigger companies likely have a team for this.  I would suspect that you would need to go with a bigger company for more admin.  

[Reeza]

These are just my opinion, please do whatever works for you.

Random things to consider:

• Administration is less jobs in general. A firm will have one to two admin vs 10-20 clinical programmers sometimes. 
• Administration is moving to the cloud, and you don't (assumed) have the IT/Comp Sci background to really support servers/admin. 
• Administration in the cloud will get more automated
• Admin tasks are pretty delineated so more likely to get automated away in the future. 

• Clinical - can change languages but the process remains the same. 
• Can switch into other analytics fields more easily.
• More jobs
• More in line with your training and your training/education is an asset here.

In general, though, I think one thing from someone else's post is the key difference - do you want to do repeatable tasks that you're told to do, or would you like a job where there's more autonomy and you need to think and make decisions more. 

And the idea of what the job situation is like where you are is very important. In my particular field of study (Actuarial Science) there were limited roles in my city so I only ended up working in that field for a couple of years.

[VDD]

Do you like to have you own choice?  Yes=programmer

Do you like following orders? Yes = Admin

Do you like to experiment?  Yes = programmer

Do you like to be called in the middle of the night? Yes = Admin.

The list goes on and on. Are you looking for freedom, or Constance