Ask HN: No Path from Techie to Management? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: No Path from Techie to Management?

When I was a much more junior techie I would apply for management roles in my company only to be told that I needed more experience and to upgrade my credentials. Years later I have certifications, a graduate degree and have advanced through the technical ranks. Now when I apply to management roles I am told that they are looking for a fresh perspective after hiring junior to intermediate applicants into the roles.

I am not an isolated example at my work and as a result we have lost some excellent talent. Is this happening at other companies or is mine an outlier?

Outside of this problem I really like where I work and the people that I work with but I feel that I may need to move on if I want to advance my career. I can't think of a way to address this problem with the higher ups without torching my future further.

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Anecdotally, in the tech industry you usually will need to change companies to move up. Certainly not true everywhere, but it's been a "feature" of the industry for a decade or more.

That does seem to be the case here.

You are not popular enough at your work place or at least not with the right people. Change jobs and try again.

Learn the things that no one else is willing to do or easily has the capability to do and ask for a raise or move in position. Be prepared to move on. They will give you what you want.

There really aren't tasks of that nature where I work.

We also have a policy of ensuring that we have no single point of failure when it comes to technical or institutional knowledge. Our tech work community is really good at ensuring that we keep others in the loop and document everything.

Non-management positions are subject to a union collective agreement. The money is good mind you but there are no raises outside the pay grids.

Then you are in a well designed workplace. Most are not this well organized. I was able to fill the requirements for a higher position in my job so they had to promote me basically because other people could not. Part of being promoted is being able to take on the more technical work in the higher positions. This combines with taking on team work activities. You volunteer to do the things which management does. There are times when the manager is not there because they are on vacation or they have too much work to do.

Also, if you watch closely, there will be professional development opportunities. These usually include some kind of training through your workplace. In addition, there are committees sometimes. These can create connections in the workplace. Being connected makes you more visible and promotable. This includes conference attendance. The objective is to meet people and make your company look good.

There are also programs that offer training. Things like Verizon Skill Forward which gives a year of training for free or if you pay for like administrative certificates. Check to see what your job offers for education credits. How much will they pay for and what will they guarantee if you do the training.

There is also the question of side projects. Some workplaces encourage inventiveness or side projects which show you can do things for the company. There are ways to do things.

Advancing through technical ranks does not qualify one for management. It qualifies them for more technical stuff.

Are you taking leadership responsibilities? Leading your team, mentoring others, representing your team in broader meetings with other teams, helping with planning, etc. Doing that stuff probably means you stop doing technical stuff.

Yes. I'm currently a team lead, train or tutor more junior techies and have had great performance reviews.

I have also taken the company recommended leadership courses.

There is also a matter of time. Some people don't get promoted until several years pass. If you look at a particular position or job listing, they say 3 years as a manager, 6 years doing Ruby. Find out the time requirements by reading job postings. This will tell you what is realistic in terms of time in a position. Compare 4 or 5 very similar listings time requirements. There is a little bit of flexibility with this, but not as much as you would think.

I have seen this in many orgs. It is sometimes hard for others to see you in a role other than the one you are in, or sometimes they see you as too valuable in your role to let you leave it.

I agree with the others that sometimes the path for career advancement can be to move on elsewhere.

The main issue is that many managers are selfish, if you are a technical talent they prefer to keep you locked in the technical side because you make their life easier, you could state clearly your intentions for example: within the next three years I want to move from the technical side to the management side and define with your manager and future manager what should be done to achieve this goal making it clear that if it doesn’t happen you will be willing to seek other opportunities outside your company.

It is your company that should provide guidance to what you should do to achieve this goal, some companies might offer you a master or MBA.

Doing certificates and studying can help increase your knowledge and could be helpful if you seek such opportunity outside of your company but if you plan to stay in your current company it’s better to let them define what is needed so they don’t have excuses.

Find another org willing to support your professional development. "Thank you for the opportunity to grow here, but there is no longer a path forward here at this time. I am willing to entertain returning if that changes in the future." once you find your next role. Leave the door open to come back in the future when they can provide what you need, don't burn the bridge. Sometimes the only move is to leave.

Career hacking is a skill most of us don't have. People before us were either lucky (read: far less competition) or insanely talented (read: meritocracy)

MBA

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