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Agreed. I have seen it multiple times that people didn't get promoted or transferred to a new interesting task because they were so good at what they did at the

Agreed. I have seen it multiple times that people didn't get promoted or transferred to a new interesting task because they were so good at what they did at the moment. Instead people that didn't perform well got promoted or to do the new thing. One example: At my company the high performing experienced people are stuck with our legacy products so new things get either explored by interns or new people who don't know the company. I have pointed out several times how insane this is but everybody just shrugs. I think the lesson is to not leave too much of a footprint so management has no qualms transferring you to a new task.

khalilravanna 8y ago
You could argue both parties, the managers and the high-performing, experienced people are to blame in this scenario. Sure, the managers should have the foresight to make sure there are continuing opportunities for the experienced people by training up people to replace them in their current roles. But shouldn't those experienced people have the foresight themselves and make sure they're not "stuck" and instead have mentees ready to take their place? I write this comment as someone currently in this place myself. Or rather, planning so that I don't end up in that "stuck" place. I want to start working on bigger picture problems in the engineering organization but it's hard when the buck stops with you for a multitude of tasks that have to be done to foster the continuing growth of the company. Training the next gen. is an interesting problem I'm exciting to work on mastering.
- CardenB 8y ago
  How do you "have mentees" without management on board? Legacy products tend to be inherently unsexy and it's hard to attract mentees to those projects.
  - khalilravanna 8y ago
    I guess I’m ignoring the situation wherein the experienced devs are stuck in a corner without a team. In that situation, without management on board it seems quite difficult to get out of that situation without some tough conversations directly with management. That being said, that, I hope, is the exception rather than the rule. And I should think intelligent, self-aware devs wouldn’t let themselves fall into that situation. I personally would start looking for better opportunities once things started looking as dire as that. For devs not in that situation it’s still a non trivial problem you bring up: how to entice the next gen to work on legacy-type projects. That I think comes down to a problem of selling. That is to say, solving it will depend on the audience and the product. Some strategies I’d think might work would be: 1) the opportunity to learn a great deal, for those who are very junior, 2) the opportunity to master an important part of the business (if it’s being kept around with resources allocated, there must be a reason why), though a dated one.

khalilravanna 8y ago

You could argue both parties, the managers and the high-performing, experienced people are to blame in this scenario. Sure, the managers should have the foresight to make sure there are continuing opportunities for the experienced people by training up people to replace them in their current roles. But shouldn't those experienced people have the foresight themselves and make sure they're not "stuck" and instead have mentees ready to take their place? I write this comment as someone currently in this place myself. Or rather, planning so that I don't end up in that "stuck" place. I want to start working on bigger picture problems in the engineering organization but it's hard when the buck stops with you for a multitude of tasks that have to be done to foster the continuing growth of the company. Training the next gen. is an interesting problem I'm exciting to work on mastering.

CardenB 8y ago
How do you "have mentees" without management on board? Legacy products tend to be inherently unsexy and it's hard to attract mentees to those projects.
- khalilravanna 8y ago
  I guess I’m ignoring the situation wherein the experienced devs are stuck in a corner without a team. In that situation, without management on board it seems quite difficult to get out of that situation without some tough conversations directly with management. That being said, that, I hope, is the exception rather than the rule. And I should think intelligent, self-aware devs wouldn’t let themselves fall into that situation. I personally would start looking for better opportunities once things started looking as dire as that. For devs not in that situation it’s still a non trivial problem you bring up: how to entice the next gen to work on legacy-type projects. That I think comes down to a problem of selling. That is to say, solving it will depend on the audience and the product. Some strategies I’d think might work would be: 1) the opportunity to learn a great deal, for those who are very junior, 2) the opportunity to master an important part of the business (if it’s being kept around with resources allocated, there must be a reason why), though a dated one.