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Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

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Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#131

Post by eitally »

mxuribe wrote: post #101
DelaneyM wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An MBA provides only one thing: the opportunity to stop doing engineering. Do you want to stop coding/building things, and instead build teams & business? Then do an MBA. There really is a lot to learn; it's not the irrelevant piece of paper it's often made out to be. The usual caveats apply (right school/program, work hard, etc.) Do you want to be a higher-impact engineer? Don't do it. Apply to YCombinator, build mo…

> An MBA provides only one thing: the opportunity to stop doing engineering. Holy smokes! If your statement is true, then here's me running in the opposite direction of that mba. +1!

Think about it: MBAs learn non-engineering skills, so how could it possibly be otherwise. If you get an MBA and continue engineering work, then by definition you're not leveraging your MBA, and vice-versa. That's a huge simplification, of course and I don't completely agree with the OP, but that's the gist of her point.

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#132

Post by ddebernardy »

DelaneyM wrote: post #126
ddebernardy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also provides access to an alumni network.

Not nearly as relevant/helpful it's often made out to be. Executives are more helpful than most give them credit for. If you're a credible contact with real experience, and authentically ask someone for input or advice, most are happy to chat. The thing about the vaunted "HBS network" is that if you're qualified to get in to HBS, you're extremely likely to be otherwise credible; those who wish they had access to the…

Interesting how you put it. The "devaluation of higher education" bit of this column struck a chord in me back then. It sort of lays out a similar point in a slightly different way:

http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/BACKWRD2.html

Time will tell. :-)

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#133

Post by programminggeek »

CTO is a coding role. Also, coding roles are less valuable than CTO roles.

If you like the money, keep the money and do your job well.

If it's not about the money, get a coding role somewhere and know that your goal is to be a great coder, not to work up the company ladder.

Being a coder is great, but realize that different jobs have different work and different values attached to them. Make sure what you want to be and what you do are aligned correctly so that you get what you actually want.

It seems like what you think you want, what you are working towards, and what you are really doing aren't aligned.

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#134

Post by vthallam »

DelaneyM wrote: post #126
ddebernardy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also provides access to an alumni network.

Not nearly as relevant/helpful it's often made out to be. Executives are more helpful than most give them credit for. If you're a credible contact with real experience, and authentically ask someone for input or advice, most are happy to chat. The thing about the vaunted "HBS network" is that if you're qualified to get in to HBS, you're extremely likely to be otherwise credible; those who wish they had access to the…

> most important networking aspect of an HBS degree is just humanizing executives and learning how to communicate with them

So true! Probably this is the most important thing a good business degree provides.

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#136

Post by curiousDog »

DelaneyM wrote: post #38

tl;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…

Your career is both fascinating and inspirational. Best of luck with your new venture.

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#137

Post by eitally »

DelaneyM wrote: post #123
vasilipupkin wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly doubting the assertion that it is easier to become a Google VP as a coder than a product manager. Product managers are responsible for the product and its P&L which is much more suited as training ground for VP than being a coder, in my opinion

A better 1:1 comparison is PM vs lead Engineer. They're at similar levels in the hierarchy. There are idiosyncratic and systematic ways to consider this statement. My personal belief is that it would be an easier path because I know myself to be very good at building products and supporting engineers, and relatively less interested in market research & networking. In a more general sense, it's pretty easy to get a ro…

I suggest that once you get to the senior manager level on both tracks they generally start to merge as both become less focused on technical minutiae and more focused on product planning and execution. Eng directors [outside of pure research areas] have to be as market/business savvy as PM directors, for sure.

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#138

Post by DelaneyM »

eitally wrote: post #131
mxuribe wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An MBA provides only one thing: the opportunity to stop doing engineering. Holy smokes! If your statement is true, then here's me running in the opposite direction of that mba. +1!

Think about it: MBAs learn non-engineering skills, so how could it possibly be otherwise. If you get an MBA and continue engineering work, then by definition you're not leveraging your MBA, and vice-versa. That's a huge simplification, of course and I don't completely agree with the OP, but that's the gist of her point.

There are exceptions to every rule, but I'd say within the context of "jobs at existing large employers of MBAs and/or Engineers" the true intersection of engineer & business is nonexistent.

(There are lots of places where it'd be advantageous to have both skills, but never necessary, which is my underlying thesis.)

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#139

Post by nekopa »

DelaneyM wrote: post #125
nekopa wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So why don't we, as an industry, talk to the Universities, and say that we really need a new program, let's say a TechMBA? (Or for marketing purposes, call it a TeMBA - that really rolls off the tongue :) I'd think that there would be some interest around this from the universities, and business is really crying out for this too. From the Uni viewpoint, it is another product they can leverage, whilst still using ther…

This needs to be solved demand-side, not supply-side. If you graduated a class of TechMBAs right now they wouldn't have any jobs to use their new skills. Flip it around: if Google opened up a new role for "Active engineers with MBAs", and presumably a few others followed suit, a top school or two (GSB/HBS/CBS/etc) would create the curriculum & recruiting plan to fill it. (Most likely Google could do this together wit…

Is this not a classic chicken-egg scenario?

I think if you graduated a class of TeMBAs right now, they would have jobs just because of the MBA side of the equation.

And, I think they would kick-ass in what ever job they take because of their tech skills. Even stooping as low as to say that their Excel skills would rock because they know how to masterfully program macros.

But WOW, yes, if someone like Google got behind a program like this, it would take off like nobodies business.

But I think we really need to get regular businesses (Davids, not Goliaths) behind this. And somehow, show them the benefits of a well rounded TeMBA graduate.

Re: Ask HN: I don't enjoy being a CTO. Now what?

#140

Post by unhappycto »

karterk wrote: post #10

> I haven't even written a line of code in months. CTOs generally don't write code. But, in a typical startup designations don't matter so much. How different is your current role from the one you were offered during the negotiations? > I thought perhaps being CTO in a startup would give me some of that same ownership, control and enjoyment but it just feels like another job. Do you feel connected to the overall visi…

You are absolutely correct, I need to talk with the other senior folks and this question here was my way of hearing some thoughts before going through that process.

> Do you feel connected to the overall vision of the company?

If I answer honestly, then no, not really. I think it's an interesting idea that will end up making a lot of money but no, the central 'theme' of the business doesn't touch any interests or passions of mine. The role came about via my network and I was much more interested in moving into the role of CTO than the product. Writing that out like this makes me realize that was a big mistake.

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