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Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
71–80 of 228 posts
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#72tl;dr: in your situation many people go off and get an MBA. Don't do that. There's a reason there's only one CTO in HBS' 60,000 person alumni database (I am she.) I was a very hands-on CTO for years after a decade of coding, and broadly enjoyed it. But as the teams I managed grew it became increasingly unfulfilling. When you're CTO, you're often excluded from business decisions which have a bigger impact on your team…
> Unfortunately, there's no real place in the world for a highly technical business leader. Cough Elon Musk
Cough solo founder.
> The only truly successful technical leader is the founder,
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#73The main problem I'm seeing with this kind of topics is this notion that "management" and "coding etc." are on the same vertical. That as an end result of a successful career as a professional is to move into management. Well, that's just bonkers. I used to be a coder. Now I'm in management and I've learned, the hard way, that management is it's own specialty ... and that the best managers don't see them self's as "a…
My very large company has 5 lanes. Purely technical is at the far right, purely management is at the far left. Our CTOs do not spend the majority of their career in the company in either lane and that seems to have worked out okay. I don't think people are particularly encouraged to stay in the management lane either.
Interesting. Can you put some descriptive labels around the three "middle" lanes as well? I'm trying to figure out the distinction that would make someone 25% management, 75% technical, vs 50/50
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#74tl;dr: in your situation many people go off and get an MBA. Don't do that. There's a reason there's only one CTO in HBS' 60,000 person alumni database (I am she.) I was a very hands-on CTO for years after a decade of coding, and broadly enjoyed it. But as the teams I managed grew it became increasingly unfulfilling. When you're CTO, you're often excluded from business decisions which have a bigger impact on your team…
> Unfortunately, there's no real place in the world for a highly technical business leader. While I certainly see evidence of this in the workplace, I also see that this kind of leader would be exceptionally valuable to any organization. Do you find that the issue here is that companies already at scale have separated concerns so highly that the management skills are more valued (so technical leaders go to startups /…
> While I certainly see evidence of this in the workplace, I also see that this kind of leader would be exceptionally valuable to any organization.
You'd think!!
I have a few theories as to why this is so:
The most charitable interpretation is that, since technically competent business leaders are so incredibly rare (set aside that every engineer thinks they can do it), there's no design pattern for that leader. Ownership is ritually divided into COO/CTO/CFO, and of those CTO is linearly defined. Technical leaders are excluded from non-technical discussions by default, and norms are extremely hard to break.
^ This is why I recommend against great Engineers doing an MBA. There's just no role at Amazon/Google/etc. for that profile beneath the VP level, reporting trees for engineers/business branch at the second tier and never meet thereafter.
A different perspective is that in a sufficiently technical organization (ie: everyone, these days), technology is a giant black box to the rest of the leadership team. It's a big part of the budget and a massive component of success, yet completely opaque and unfamiliar to someone who rose up through sales/marketing/etc. In their minds, the CTO already has an outsize impact, and surrendering to them more scope is scary.
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#75as a CTO you're not just an employee of a company, but also one of its leaders. you have control over what you do. if you don't like the day to day process, change it.
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#76tl;dr: in your situation many people go off and get an MBA. Don't do that. There's a reason there's only one CTO in HBS' 60,000 person alumni database (I am she.) I was a very hands-on CTO for years after a decade of coding, and broadly enjoyed it. But as the teams I managed grew it became increasingly unfulfilling. When you're CTO, you're often excluded from business decisions which have a bigger impact on your team…
Thanks for the reply. I had thought of doing an MBA a couple of years ago, albeit fleetingly. I don't think that will solve things in this current situation though :)
I also agree that perhaps my issue is more of building things rather than strategic input. After all, when building things for my own business is when I'm most happy so it's good to hear a similar conclusion.
Good luck with your new venture!
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#77tl;dr: in your situation many people go off and get an MBA. Don't do that. There's a reason there's only one CTO in HBS' 60,000 person alumni database (I am she.) I was a very hands-on CTO for years after a decade of coding, and broadly enjoyed it. But as the teams I managed grew it became increasingly unfulfilling. When you're CTO, you're often excluded from business decisions which have a bigger impact on your team…
Any idea what your new venture will be?
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#78>> It seems to be mostly about dealing with everyone's crap, trying to fight fires and constantly battling with the other managers and tech team to get things done.
That's 99% of what management is.
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#79What I'm about to say may be considered harsh, but I promise I don't mean it to be. Quit. Just leave. Go back to coding. It's obvious you don't enjoy management, there's no shame in admitting that. Rather than inflict your misery on the rest of the team, get back to your wheelhouse where you can be happy, your team can be happy, and ultimately your company (current or future) can be happy. I have worked in a job wher…
Thank you for this, it's the way my mind has been leaning but it's good to hear. I realize my original post makes it sound like I had no idea what being a senior manager might involve which is just not true. I understand a lot of fire fighting and dealing with problems is par for the course I just didn't know if I'd enjoy doing that or not. How are you supposed to know until you try? :)
I also felt like I'd have way more control than I currently do. Perhaps that is a problem with me and if I simply took control and treated it like my own business I could change things enough to suit me more. But is that a good decision for the business? I'm not so sure. What's the point in changing things so much that the business suffers?
Anyway, your points about your previous boss really resonate with me right now. I'm finding myself increasingly frustrated and dreading meetings because I feel that frustration is coming across to the rest of the team.
Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?
#80The main problem I'm seeing with this kind of topics is this notion that "management" and "coding etc." are on the same vertical. That as an end result of a successful career as a professional is to move into management. Well, that's just bonkers. I used to be a coder. Now I'm in management and I've learned, the hard way, that management is it's own specialty ... and that the best managers don't see them self's as "a…
On the other hand, as a coder, working with a manager with little or no code experience is ineffective and frustrating. Having a manager who can wrap her head around complex architectures, and argue/negotiate for one strategy over the other is extremely important. Yes, so are team skills, but I wouldn't call the the path from coding to manager coders fundamentally flawed.