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At 30 you aren't the adult supervision hire, you're the guy the adult supervision hire brings on as a lieutenant.

by hx8 2y ago

bigiain 2y ago
Yeah. Lots of startup experiences is a good indicator of lots of technical war stories, and having been "that guy" or part of a team where a bunch of seemingly workable approaches to problems failed spectacularly is a _very_ valuable skillset to bring to the table with a bunch of fresh grads or early career devs. You probably need another decade to get the same sort of collections of war stories about managing people and teams and higher management, which is another skillset the "adult supervision" needs. Having said that, I've seen teams of fresh grads and bootcamp trained devs, where some 30 year old adult supervision might have saved projects or companies from expensive or existential disasters. "No, we are NOT going to build this critical project's frontend on the JavaScript framework you and two of your bootcamp buddies spent the last 4 weekends writing."
- Moto7451 2y ago
  Yup. I agree with the thoughts here. I just moved to a company as the Adult supervision role. I agree at 30 you’re probably closer to the “Lieutenant”, which is a role I’ve played before. I wouldn’t count someone out from playing a bigger part just on age though. I’ve seen plenty of hubris (most recently in the form of home rolling a Kubernetes/ECS alternative. Twice. RIP productivity) from people I’d describe as one year of experience twenty five times. More than anything I think the OP just needs a change of atmosphere and even as an IC with technical management or a middle people manager somewhere stable he’ll have an interesting time with a very different environment.
mertleee 2y ago
Is there any way to become that guy without doing 1-2 years of grunt work under the adult supervision "guy"?
- hx8 2y ago
  The adult supervision guy is usually asked questions about the size of the teams they have lead in the interview. You get to be the adult supervision by having experience leading teams. You get to become team lead by being the best person on your team when the team lead leaves.

At 30 you aren't the adult supervision hire, you're the guy the adult supervision hire brings on as a lieutenant.

by hx8 2y ago

At 30 you aren't the adult supervision hire, you're the guy the adult supervision hire brings on as a lieutenant.

Yeah. Lots of startup experiences is a good indicator of lots of technical war stories, and having been "that guy" or part of a team where a bunch of seemingly workable approaches to problems failed spectacularly is a _very_ valuable skillset to bring to the table with a bunch of fresh grads or early career devs. You probably need another decade to get the same sort of collections of war stories about managing people and teams and higher management, which is another skillset the "adult supervision" needs. Having said that, I've seen teams of fresh grads and bootcamp trained devs, where some 30 year old adult supervision might have saved projects or companies from expensive or existential disasters. "No, we are NOT going to build this critical project's frontend on the JavaScript framework you and two of your bootcamp buddies spent the last 4 weekends writing."

Moto7451 2y ago
Yup. I agree with the thoughts here. I just moved to a company as the Adult supervision role. I agree at 30 you’re probably closer to the “Lieutenant”, which is a role I’ve played before. I wouldn’t count someone out from playing a bigger part just on age though. I’ve seen plenty of hubris (most recently in the form of home rolling a Kubernetes/ECS alternative. Twice. RIP productivity) from people I’d describe as one year of experience twenty five times. More than anything I think the OP just needs a change of atmosphere and even as an IC with technical management or a middle people manager somewhere stable he’ll have an interesting time with a very different environment.

mertleee 2y ago

Is there any way to become that guy without doing 1-2 years of grunt work under the adult supervision "guy"?

hx8 2y ago
The adult supervision guy is usually asked questions about the size of the teams they have lead in the interview. You get to be the adult supervision by having experience leading teams. You get to become team lead by being the best person on your team when the team lead leaves.