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Coming back from consulting into Tech is generally not a super tough transition as long your skills are still reasonably sharp. For me I spent years consulting

Coming back from consulting into Tech is generally not a super tough transition as long your skills are still reasonably sharp. For me I spent years consulting and as a founder (U.S. based). Good consultants learn business and people skills which are critical to succeed that generally a senior developer won't have. So my guess is your key skill that so many very good engineers lack is the ability for you to work with the business, understand the business needs and translate that into technical product vision and priorities. This set of skills are very underrated in most small companies and startups overall, yet it is the one thing that can really have a solid and positive impact on all companies. In my opinion if you want to move back into a tech based company and out of financial services you should focus on those skills as your sales point. Your tech skills could be less than others, but if you can turn business needs into tech vision and priorities that is more valuable. Not sure what the Sydney or other markets you mentioned are like, so your mileage may vary.

kristoft 8y ago
Absolutely agreed. I think you can easily bet on CTO or Head of Development positions with such a great set of skills. I think these positions are very good to move to tech companies: amount of $ is still very good, you are not only developing and you can apply your business skills to the tech problems.
hestefisk 8y ago
Thank you for this; very elaborate. I would be interested in hearing more about your experience making the shift. I have considered CTO roles but generally here in .au look for people with previous CTO experience, so it becomes very hard to demonstrate experience. I have worked with numerous CIOs in my time as a consultant on business cases and commercial performance so definitely have some proof. But again being a consultant is very different to an operational role of a CTO. Unless tech start ups are different?
- davismwfl 8y ago
  You'd have to look at small businesses or startups if you wanted to go straight to a CTO type role IMO -- having not held something equivalent prior. But assuming you interview well and have the right skill set you could probably pretty easily do that. Startups need people that are more versatile and willing to take on a lot of challenges. Generally the one negative with early startups is the pay will not be what you are used to, so you have to weigh that based on your personal situation. You could also look at product roles, e.g. where you are a product manager or something similar. Again since you want to be hands on technical you'd have to do this in a smaller company or startup where you could do so. As for my experience, it wasn't that difficult to do. I just sought out positions which seemed to gel well with my experience and desires. Honestly, when I joined the current startup I am at, I joined as a Senior Firmware Engineer. I am doing more now that uses more of my total experience, but that was how I joined and I loved it cause I initially really wanted to spend some time just in code.

kristoft 8y ago

Absolutely agreed. I think you can easily bet on CTO or Head of Development positions with such a great set of skills. I think these positions are very good to move to tech companies: amount of $ is still very good, you are not only developing and you can apply your business skills to the tech problems.

hestefisk 8y ago

Thank you for this; very elaborate. I would be interested in hearing more about your experience making the shift. I have considered CTO roles but generally here in .au look for people with previous CTO experience, so it becomes very hard to demonstrate experience. I have worked with numerous CIOs in my time as a consultant on business cases and commercial performance so definitely have some proof. But again being a consultant is very different to an operational role of a CTO. Unless tech start ups are different?

davismwfl 8y ago
You'd have to look at small businesses or startups if you wanted to go straight to a CTO type role IMO -- having not held something equivalent prior. But assuming you interview well and have the right skill set you could probably pretty easily do that. Startups need people that are more versatile and willing to take on a lot of challenges. Generally the one negative with early startups is the pay will not be what you are used to, so you have to weigh that based on your personal situation. You could also look at product roles, e.g. where you are a product manager or something similar. Again since you want to be hands on technical you'd have to do this in a smaller company or startup where you could do so. As for my experience, it wasn't that difficult to do. I just sought out positions which seemed to gel well with my experience and desires. Honestly, when I joined the current startup I am at, I joined as a Senior Firmware Engineer. I am doing more now that uses more of my total experience, but that was how I joined and I loved it cause I initially really wanted to spend some time just in code.