development and production support

1.5 years has passed since I start my IT career, this couldn’t be said as a long time, but during that, I have experienced a transition from ITSM to current development engagement. As my job needs frequently communication with development team, support team and SM teams, I began to have a certain understanding for those roles. And we often discuss the question among colleagues – “whether development is better or production support is better one to start a career for any technology?”  “What are the benefits of both these roles?” answer varies from people to people. Also there are lots of opinions on internet, here I simply put them to the advantages and disadvantages and listed as below, hope it helps, but gotta to know this could be different depending on where you work or actually it may not be a matter of one or another. Remember: Jobs are owned by the company, you own your career!

Advantages of development
1. In the development project we get an exposure to SDLC very well; exposure to new technologies, starting from scratch, client Interaction and so on;
2. Development is more project work with longer timeframes, more structure around requirements, design, and code, test etc;

Disadvantages of development
1. As a developer, you might build something out normal business hours, it will depend upon how much time you are willing to commit;
2. Because you are dealing with projects, you may be exposed to a more political environment, dealing more with management, attending meetings, and doing a lot of planning before actually coding；

Advantages of production support
1. Prod support gets to learn many applications, work with different teams, gain process management and communication skills;
2. Coding opportunities are code fixed that are done quickly;
3. More interaction with clients and know more clients needs;
4. Prod support like the thrill of emergency fixes, ever-changing assignments and 'fire-drills', and sometime can earn extra OT pay;

Disadvantages of production support
1. As in support project it is already well tested project and they need only few resources that can support the project. Not much coding will be involved.
2. Prod support is fighting 'firs'(production issues) that can be charged with emotions, and more likely to work overtime;
3. Prod support may lose the big picture sense of an application by supporting parts;