7 ms·
Tips for moving into management [audio]
- laurieg 9y agoIt's there a path into management without being a developer first?
- dagw 9y agoGoing back to school and getting an MBA seems to work for a lot of people.
- hycaria 9y agoIt's better when a company endorses you for an MBA...
- jcadam 9y agoI worked for a large company that paid for my MBA, and then I was caught up in a mass layoff immediately after graduating. Strange. Still working as an individual contributor Software Engineer (albeit a well paid one) all these years later. Can't seem to land a lead position.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago> Can't seem to land a lead position. Keep trying.
- jcadam 9y agoI've known people who were promoted only when they threatened to quit. One was a relatively new hire - I couldn't believe it worked in her case (who demands a promotion/raise after 2 months on the job)? Hmm....
- dagw 9y agoOne thing I've learned far too late in my career is that it's amazing what you can actually get if you just go up to the right person and say you want it.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoDo not get an MBA unless your company will pay for it and you're going to a top 10 school. It's a networking opportunity first, an education opportunity second. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16039042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16039042
- Sammi 9y agoI know of two options if you are willing to work your way up slowly: 1. Become a domain expert and work in the domain and then move into product management. Kind of a round-about way to go about it, but if you like the domain then why not. 2. There are also a lot of low level project coordination jobs out there. It's not really management and it's really stressful work as you get a lot of responsibility, but not a lot of power. But if you don't burn out then you'll slowly get more and more clout and move up the hierarchy.
- 33W 9y agoDepending on the organization, roles in project management or analysis are non-developer routes to management.
- grok2 9y agoProduct management, sales, marketing etc coupled maybe with some business school training. Sometimes these are better paths into management, because you get sufficient product knowledge to help you understand the nitty-gritty details of what you will be managing or becoming a executive for.
- gerhardi 9y agoYou know, a large proportion of companies don’t even have developers employed or much to do with software, yet they still have people in management. This implies that there are multiple ways!
- angarg12 9y agoI find this GDC talk more concise and comprehensive, on the same topic: So They Made You a Lead, Now What? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z98rF3bllao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z98rF3bllao
- nimbius 9y agothis feels incredibly familiar. either youre promoted to a lead, given no training, and fired or demoted when you dont succeed, or you're slowly just "recognized" as the lead without any overt assertion from management. The latter is the worst, because after a few month or even a year there is a tacit communal agreement among leadership that you're secretly the lead without ever defining what that is. pretty soon you're charged with everything from random powerpoint presentations to some midlevel managers incident/action reports with no real idea why its happening other than you're a 'subject matter expert.' It has a scarring effect ive found, anecdotally. Ive spent 12 years as a systems administrator in various contexts (traditional, devops, contract, etc..) and I've already declined a leadership role on the pretext that its just going to be system administration with the expectation with added clerical ditch-digging for the real management team.
- make3 9y ago"you're slowly just "recognized" as the lead without any overt assertion from management" can't you just ask for official recognition or find a new job that is a better fit for what you actually do? there are billions of jobs in software, if you have the skills to should be able to do so
- Sammi 9y agoA well run organization should also be mandating regular bi annual meetings between employees and managers for goal setting. Both as an employer and as an employee you want to know what each others expectations are, so you should be following up on this continually. It's crucial for job satisfaction on both ends.
- 9y ago
- ramijames 9y agoHow about tips for not moving to management? I like being a developer. I do not like people and I do not want to manage anyone.
- eb0la 9y agoYour only option is to always work for a company that builds products. Consultancies are not an option: they depend on buying cheap man-hours and selling then for a profit. As you age, your monetary need will increase and consultancies won't be willing to pay you more... unless you become a manager. Product-builders are less shy to pay better wages for two reasons: 1) They dilute their wage expenses into a lot of customers and 2) They assume you're a good hire both for them and the competition, so hiring you means getting some leverage against competitors.
- ska 9y agounless you become a manager. Or a specialist with compelling skills.
- sidlls 9y agoAll that does is raise the ceiling slightly. The number of specialists with compelling skills earning much more than typical ICs is dwarfed by the number of senior directors, VPs and C-suites earning as much or more as the specialist can.
- ska 9y agoSure, but there is nothing wrong with that. Most developers, say, do not have any career path that ends them up in the C-suite, so holding that up as a comparison isn't very useful. If you finish out your career as a middle manager or a technical specialist, it looks much more similar. It's a path to consider for many people, but realize there are far fewer opportunities (and less lateral mobility).
- tzahola 9y agoTip #1: be content with your current salary. Otherwise you'll have to do something outstanding, so that your higher ups will pay you more even though you're "just a developer".
- 33W 9y agoI'll be soon transitioning from a team lead to manager (with a new company). Can anyone add any recommendation to my list of resources? Books: Peopleware, 5 dysfunctions of a team, Ziglar's Top Performance, Pragmatic Programmer (and others, but these are the top ones) Websites: askamanager.org, Joel on Software Podcasts: HBR ideacast
- chasd00 9y agoThe Manager's Path is a book i found on Amazon, I really like it. Basically, each chapter is one rung up the management ladder. You can read the whole thing or just up to the chapter where you're currently at.
- 33W 9y agoAdded to the cart - thanks!
- tboyd47 9y ago"First, Break All the Rules." The title sounds dumb, but trust me, it's full of good advice. It's based completely on research and interviews with successful managers.
- 33W 9y agoThanks! I've done strenghtsfinder, and read Go Put Your Strengths to Work, so I'm looking forward to this one.
- elliottcarlson 9y agohttp://softwareleadweekly.com/ http://softwareleadweekly.com/ - A weekly newsletter, as well as Slack group - great resource. Books: - Leaders Eat Last - Managing Humans - What Got You Here, Won't Get You There - Radical Focus - Leading Snowflakes: The Engineering Manager Handbook - The Manager's Path - The Coaching Habit - Thanks for the Feedback
- 33W 9y ago
- chasd00 9y agoi haven't listened to this but will at lunch for sure. I'm in the process of making the switch to management after accepting a new role around last Nov. It's painful, one of the hardest parts for me is knowing when I've had a good day or bad day, there's not a good measure, things are very subjective. The mentoring and leadership aspect of management I've really taken to and didn't expect to enjoy so much. Pairing up a Sr. and Jr. dev and watching the Jr. dev bloom and the Sr. dev become a better communicator, to the point i've put them in front of a client, has been the highlight so far.
- bane 9y agoTo me the hardest part of moving into management from engineering came with the realization that "accomplishment" is a much squishier thing. Almost every action as a manager ends up as a compromise across several different very soft-skills variables. Recognizing the core of what matters and not getting hung up on other distractions seems to be the difference between success and failure. I don't focus on my career at all and have found that it usually takes care of itself so long as I don't bypass any opportunities. Here's my checklist I use to see if I'm doing a good job (by my own measure), and these are not in order of priority but must be balanced simultaneously: - put your staff first, leadership is a service function - ship, on time, and within budget -- exceed expectations
- mrlyc 9y agoWhen I moved from programming into management, the hardest thing I found was to change from flow-driven work to interrupt-driven work. I started with the golden rule: "Manage people the way you would like to be managed." That lasted about ten minutes. I changed it to "Manage people the way they want to be managed" which was much more succesful.
- alexandercrohde 9y agoMy tip - don't. It's a demotion. The lowest-level manager has significantly more accountability than anybody else (i.e. most likely to be fired without 8 months notice a director would get) with few upsides (lower pay per hour of work, worse career trajectory, greater stress, will be forbidden from having negative opinions about anything the company does, more likely to be scapegoated for a boss's mistake). See the Gervais principle: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...
- pramit 9y agoFrom The Success Manual: The 22 Jobs (And Skills) of a leader http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/leadership-skills-the-22-jobs-and-skills-of-a-leader http://www.thesuccessmanual.in/chapter/leadership-skills-the...