So…what do you do?

My official title at work is team lead, ECM practice area, but when people ask what I do, I usually tell them I am a CMS analyst. This is the best phrase I’ve come across that actually describes what I do.

(NB: unfortunately, hardly anyone outside of the web industry understands what I do)

I’m in a funny but enjoyable spot between developer and something else. That is, I’ve pretty much stopped writing code completely, but I haven’t jumped to another pure role either. I play multiple roles including CMS solution architect, business analyst, developer, technical lead and sales engineer.

Therefore, I’ve taken the oft-used “business system analyst” and narrowed it down to CMS analyst. It’s simple…and doesn’t pigeonhole into any of the individual roles listed above. Other ideas might be:

• CMS strategist?
• content management consultant?

I had an interesting discussion today with a Sr. Manager in the industry, and his perspective is that pure business analysts and pure developers are over-represented. The best path is that of a business systems analyst, specializing in one or several hot platforms. I’m largely in agreement, and as content management morphs and the corporate website dies, I believe it will become even more important to be able to provide platform- and industry trend-related insight to solutions.

So for now…I am a CMS analyst. I wonder what this role will look like in 5 years.