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Why are there so many non technical managers/directors in charge of engineering or IT in Government type jobs? My wife sells to state and local governments. 90%
by wil421 3y ago
Why are there so many non technical managers/directors in charge of engineering or IT in Government type jobs? My wife sells to state and local governments. 90% of the time the people in charge have no idea about IT, SecOps, Software Development etc. Their only qualification is they have engineering or security in their title.
- otteromkram 3y agoGatekeeping, probably. (Only half joking; the cult of personality in IT can be pretty toxic.) Plus, most people in tech got into their field because they like tech. Managing people isn't nearly as fun or rewarding to them.
- BurningFrog 3y agoThere is less pressure to perform well in government, so it becomes less prioritized than in organizations that may cease to exist if they perform badly.
- TheOtherHobbes 3y agoIt's not just government jobs.
- borg16 3y agoamen.
- borg16 3y ago> Why are there so many non technical managers/directors in charge of engineering or IT in Government type jobs? due to product/program/project managers making a case for themselves to lead these teams. it might work in most of the cases, but clearly does not in engineering intensive projects - because the lens required to look at and deliver these projects is more than input/output, deadlines/deliverables. understanding the subject is necessary to make smart tradeoffs (common scenario in projects that are as large scale as this one), but few of these folks do. engineering enterprises that have often become successful owe it in their early days to majority of management having technical expertise. this is not a need once the companies become large, but such attitude does show up as inefficiency holes, if one knows where to look.
- OldGuyInTheClub 3y agoPromotions on the government and contractor sides are about appearances, not accomplishment. Strong technical people tend to like focus versus meetings and the ladder climb. Less visibility means less mobility. Giving an unpopular though factual technical analysis is career limiting. To rise means to manage people and budget. Higher the better. Kelly Johnson's 14th rule is never followed: "Because only a few people will be used in engineering and most other areas, ways must be provided to reward good performance by pay, not based on the number of personnel supervised." https://jalopnik.com/legendary-skunk-work-founder-kelly-johnsons-rules-of-ma-1708050659 https://jalopnik.com/legendary-skunk-work-founder-kelly-john...
- adestefan 3y agoThe pay is awful and the benefits aren’t great. You also have people constantly telling you that you must be bad at your job since you work for the government and not the private sector. It’s also not a lot of fun when half of Congress repeats the lie that what you do is worthless or even worse that you’re part of some nebulous “deep state.” If you don’t mind all of that then you should apply. There’s always a ton of openings for technical managers.