I am a .NET programmer with over 7 years of experience in development.
I recently changed jobs and was hired to be what I thought was a .NET programmer.
However, I am being pushed more into an analyst role. Management wants me to be a “subject matter” expert regarding the functionality and business rules/features of the application we are developing.
It turns out that the programmers on the project are mostly subcontractors and the analysts and management staff are from my company. The attitude I am hearing is that they can hire “anyone” to do the programming, but the analysts require a combination of tech skills as well as other skills (business knowledge, good communication, the ability to conduct client meetings, etc.)
The problem is that I prefer to be a developer (and that’s what I thought I was being hired to do).
I am not sure what to do here. They want me to take on the analyst role for this project — but I am afraid of becoming rusty in my programming abilities and I am afraid I won’t enjoy it. I just started with the company — I really don’t want to have to start looking for another job already.
Any thoughts/opinions/similar situations?