Ask HN: Swithing from tech position to business one | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Swithing from tech position to business one

10 pointsselmat9 comments

Hey there,

I am wondering what are your experiences with switching your career from "doing" position like engineer, developer,designer,whatever where you doing the job... to the upper position where you are managing, leading directing like manager,C*O position,business developer etc where its more about softskills,presentation and you are representative of business.

I would like to know where are you more satisfied with job as itself,workload,isues your are solving,sallary etc.

My humble experience is...i have tried to change position to PM (project mannagemet) in IT area, but PM positions in corporates in my country are about resending email and chasing people. In SME is more interesting but financial evaluation is very bad. Poor base salary with better (not awsome) yearly bonus which vary on company results lied on your shoulders. Other story are your possible coworkers. As nontechnical man you aren't forced to be up-to-date with last technological updates at so deep level.

I am also trying to do my own business but its quiet hard find similar people with same attitude to build thing together,another point is doing technical and business staff in one person is difficult at least from beggining.

I don't wanna move to different area since i moved 6 times during 9 years,mainly due to job.

For me something similar occurred. I have worked in a managerial position for 3 years and I really enjoyed but after sometime, if you passion is really to build things, you tend to be a little bit bored and stressed in dealing with people that sometimes don't want to be helped. Is kind of a case where beyond being a manager, you need to be a psychologist. This sometimes sucks, and in this moments you miss the days where you are a developer or engineer and only need to do your best to be updated with technology and create the best code that you can.

So, I think that this is very personal and don't have i recipe to be followed. Each one could discover your way and passion even you don't reach some cool title like C*something. The important is to be good with yourself to not get frustrated in the future.

> Is kind of a case where beyond being a manager, you need to be a psychologist.

Not beyond - good understanding of psychology is a core competency for any manager.

Let me just disagree here: a manager is NOT a psychologist, and shouldn't try to be one. Good understanding of psychology has NOTHING to do with managing people. People skills yes, but that is something entirely different from psychology.

A great psychologist can suck at managing people.

They are entirely different skills, with very little overlap.

I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here and argue that understanding some facets of psychology (perhaps wrapped in a broader definition of people skills) are essential to long term success managing teams and projects.

Specifically, understanding Goal-Setting Theory, Motivation Theory, and Self-Regulation Theory can provide substantial insights into why people think the way they do and give managers a framework to understand their employees and how their actions will impact their motivation and goals. The book PeopleWare touches on this a little bit when they discuss the role of autonomy in improving worker performance. Knowing that people like to feel ownership of their work and projects helps me, as a manager, guide the team and work on framing things in terms of my direct reports exercising autonomy rather than me dictating. They'll be happier and feel more involved in the work and as a result, the quality of work will be higher.

This isn't to say you need to be a life coach, therapist, and parental figure wrapped up in one. That's not your job -- though team member's lives will impact their work at some point and you'll need to empathetic. Your job to is to guide your team to meeting their objectives and understanding part of the human psyche and what motivates people will make you better at this job. Hands down.

I'd add to that some understanding about major personality types/dimensions. Being able to recognize them helps you in negotiations, assigning people to roles etc.

I would also add that it can differentiate between a manager and a leader. Managers can just handle process, but a leader needs to have deeper understanding of individuals and teams. I've met plenty of managers who definitely weren't leaders.

I'm currently in transition from developer to PM. As a developer you always have the ability to bang something out and do something. As a PM, there are more frustrating days. I spend my day answering emails, tracking down stakeholders so I can figure out what the requirements are, getting the status of work, and reporting on the work. The bad days are when you get emergency requests or requests that don't make sense. You need to be able to work with everyone and see their point of view, even if you think they are incompetent

I cant provide an answer to your specific question, however you should note when moving from any non-management position into a management position many people lack the skills needed to adequately perform their job. Not everyone is naturally talented at managing others, progressing through the workload, keeping up morale, motivating subordinates etc. I think this is a big failure point for people transitioning into these types of careers. Your stance on what project managers do stood out to me. At the end of the day many management positions require exactly that from you.

"Not everyone is naturally talented at managing others" -> moreso: nobody is naturally talented at managing others. Some people have the required talents (empathy, people skills, listening talents, caring talents), but in the end managing people is an entirely unnatural skillset that needs to be learned.

Which is why there is so much bad management.

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