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I believe this highlights a very important reality of office politics. Most ICs, even Principal Engineers, are just not in a position to fix significant technic

I believe this highlights a very important reality of office politics. Most ICs, even Principal Engineers, are just not in a position to fix significant technical-cultural problems...you just won't have enough influence. If your goal is to influence the big picture at a corporation then your title probably has to be Sr. Director, VP, SVP, or something similar. Even then it won't be easy. Political and cultural inertia will conspire to prevent change.

perl4ever 7y ago
Not necessarily. I think the key is not to take a job that is defined as being a technical resource. Because as long as you do, you will be a member of the techie caste that exists to be plugged in to the existing cultural problems. What you need to do to break free is simple, but not necessarily easy - get a job with no technical requirements, but which has the potential for technical/cultural solutions. This is the direction I eventually went in, and one thing I find interesting and notable is that even after solving all sorts of things through programming, people aren't letting me withdraw into just being a programmer - which I think is a good thing. Once I write a program to do something, then I have to document it, then I have to train other people to use it, and then we have to develop contingency plans to do without it if I should be hit by the proverbial bus. And maybe figure out how to get another developer up to speed to maintain it. If I were an actual programmer/developer, then all the different jobs would be pretty much left to other specialists and managers. Maybe some people would say, just join a startup or make your own, and you will become more well-rounded, but I'm not swamped with offers to do that and have worked in larger organizations.
Gibbon1 7y ago
I had a boss in a big corp. He couldn't fix the techno-cultural problems but he could and did hold an umbrella over his team. It'd be raining down shit and we were dry.

perl4ever 7y ago

Not necessarily. I think the key is not to take a job that is defined as being a technical resource. Because as long as you do, you will be a member of the techie caste that exists to be plugged in to the existing cultural problems. What you need to do to break free is simple, but not necessarily easy - get a job with no technical requirements, but which has the potential for technical/cultural solutions. This is the direction I eventually went in, and one thing I find interesting and notable is that even after solving all sorts of things through programming, people aren't letting me withdraw into just being a programmer - which I think is a good thing. Once I write a program to do something, then I have to document it, then I have to train other people to use it, and then we have to develop contingency plans to do without it if I should be hit by the proverbial bus. And maybe figure out how to get another developer up to speed to maintain it. If I were an actual programmer/developer, then all the different jobs would be pretty much left to other specialists and managers. Maybe some people would say, just join a startup or make your own, and you will become more well-rounded, but I'm not swamped with offers to do that and have worked in larger organizations.

Gibbon1 7y ago

I had a boss in a big corp. He couldn't fix the techno-cultural problems but he could and did hold an umbrella over his team. It'd be raining down shit and we were dry.