8 ms·

You’re going to want to change your mindset from “I want _their_ job” to “I want to be a tech lead”. Some things that you can do: 1. Observe and understand wha

You’re going to want to change your mindset from “I want _their_ job” to “I want to be a tech lead”. Some things that you can do: 1. Observe and understand what the mistakes exactly are that they are making. Note the consequences. Understand what types of “mistakes” are high-impact versus low-impact. Be humble and approach with an open mind, there’s lots to learn about yourself and understanding what are mistakes with remedies and what are stylistic differences. 2. Offer assistance to the lead and do your best to make your team successful. A rising tide lifts all ships. 3. Make your career goals explicitly clear to your manager. Find ways to work together collaboratively to make your career successful and mutually beneficial there. To reiterate — be humble. “No amount of coaching” has classically not been true in my experience. Usually what the case ends up being is that the organization has multi-layered problems and people are stuck in unsupported positions with less control than you might think. I don’t mean this in a derogatory way — I too started moving into tech lead roles with a similar mindset. Defeating that mindset is absolutely a prerequisite to being ready to be a true, good lead.

cryptica 7y ago
>> Offer assistance to the lead and do your best to make your team successful. A rising tide lifts all ships. It doesn't work like that in practice. If you're much more skilled than the tech lead and the CEO/CTO is not promoting you. You need to leave ASAP because they will never promote you and you're wasting your time; if that situation ever happens in a company, it means that the company doesn't value talent. Maybe the CEO/CTO is friends with the tech lead or there is some other reason but whatever that reason is, there should be no substitute for talent. If you're truly talented, then find another company which follows this philosophy.
- freedomben 7y ago
  I very much agree with this. I started out (and remained for years) in the camp of "a rising tide lifts all boats," but after repeated sessions in the school of life I see that it really isn't the case. There are political reasons for the current structure, and it would take a mountain of technical evidence to overturn it, assuming even that would get it done. The best thing to do is find a new company, and get hired into the role you actually want.
- bradleyjg 7y ago
  It's not either/or. Unless you are suggesting s/he quit while looking for the next role, there's still the question of what to do meanwhile. In my experience it's never a bad idea to do a good job at your job while you're there.
  - cryptica 7y ago
    Why do a good job for a company which is headed by jerks who don't give a crap about you? Ultimately the proceeds of your great work will go directly into their pockets. If they're real jerks, I'd much rather dedicate my energy to screwing them over on my way out. These sociopaths never reciprocate good deeds no matter what anyway, so the cost of burning the bridge is 0. However, the satisfaction from watching them fail after you leave and the added self-respect you get out of it is priceless.
- awinder 7y ago
  So I am actually speaking from personal experience so this does 100% happen, we could have a discussion about the relative occurrences, but I don’t even know that those numbers exist. I understand that certain personality types really latch onto this idea of the ladder climbing thing as a battleground where you need to shove people off to move up. Shit, I was that person once upon a time! But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do what I say, and things will work out more often than not. When they don’t work out you’ll have accumulated good will & tradable skills along the road. And you may even feel like a better person for it.
  - cryptica 7y ago
    My experience with many different companies for over a decade is very different. Most of the companies I worked with were cut-throat and treated everyone as disposable; even their top talent.
- jghn 7y ago
  While I agree with this, one should also make sure to consider that they're not as talented as they believe themselves to be. In my experience most folks who would proclaim that they're clearly better than their tech lead clearly aren't.
notus 7y ago
This is really good advice and the same advice I got from our VP in a similar situation. Make it clear to your manager what you're about to do and then work with your lead to elevate the team up. It will show and in most cases you will be rewarded for it. You may not get to be tech lead of the team you're currently on, but it will work to your career advantage. It can actually look bad on you as an employee if you're aware of certain shortcomings and not really trying to do anything about it other than get a new title.

cryptica 7y ago

>> Offer assistance to the lead and do your best to make your team successful. A rising tide lifts all ships. It doesn't work like that in practice. If you're much more skilled than the tech lead and the CEO/CTO is not promoting you. You need to leave ASAP because they will never promote you and you're wasting your time; if that situation ever happens in a company, it means that the company doesn't value talent. Maybe the CEO/CTO is friends with the tech lead or there is some other reason but whatever that reason is, there should be no substitute for talent. If you're truly talented, then find another company which follows this philosophy.

freedomben 7y ago
I very much agree with this. I started out (and remained for years) in the camp of "a rising tide lifts all boats," but after repeated sessions in the school of life I see that it really isn't the case. There are political reasons for the current structure, and it would take a mountain of technical evidence to overturn it, assuming even that would get it done. The best thing to do is find a new company, and get hired into the role you actually want.
bradleyjg 7y ago
It's not either/or. Unless you are suggesting s/he quit while looking for the next role, there's still the question of what to do meanwhile. In my experience it's never a bad idea to do a good job at your job while you're there.
- cryptica 7y ago
  Why do a good job for a company which is headed by jerks who don't give a crap about you? Ultimately the proceeds of your great work will go directly into their pockets. If they're real jerks, I'd much rather dedicate my energy to screwing them over on my way out. These sociopaths never reciprocate good deeds no matter what anyway, so the cost of burning the bridge is 0. However, the satisfaction from watching them fail after you leave and the added self-respect you get out of it is priceless.
awinder 7y ago
So I am actually speaking from personal experience so this does 100% happen, we could have a discussion about the relative occurrences, but I don’t even know that those numbers exist. I understand that certain personality types really latch onto this idea of the ladder climbing thing as a battleground where you need to shove people off to move up. Shit, I was that person once upon a time! But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can do what I say, and things will work out more often than not. When they don’t work out you’ll have accumulated good will & tradable skills along the road. And you may even feel like a better person for it.
- cryptica 7y ago
  My experience with many different companies for over a decade is very different. Most of the companies I worked with were cut-throat and treated everyone as disposable; even their top talent.
jghn 7y ago
While I agree with this, one should also make sure to consider that they're not as talented as they believe themselves to be. In my experience most folks who would proclaim that they're clearly better than their tech lead clearly aren't.

notus 7y ago

This is really good advice and the same advice I got from our VP in a similar situation. Make it clear to your manager what you're about to do and then work with your lead to elevate the team up. It will show and in most cases you will be rewarded for it. You may not get to be tech lead of the team you're currently on, but it will work to your career advantage. It can actually look bad on you as an employee if you're aware of certain shortcomings and not really trying to do anything about it other than get a new title.