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A career ending mistake

bitfieldconsulting.com

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Re: A career ending mistake

#51

Post by krageon »

crrndngmstk wrote: post #21

To me, this reveals an uncomfortable truth: - I know I'm not technically skilled enough to make it to the higher levels of IC - I know I lack the people skills & charisma to make it to the higher levels of management I'm aware I can improve in both and I accept that, to some extent, it's a laziness and confidence issue. But to some people it seems to come naturally and it's hard not to assume I'm in the majority that…

> uncomfortable truth:

> I'm in the majority that aren't exceptional.

That's fine, right? Quite simply most people aren't exceptional, so it is important to learn to be okay with it. Most likely it can benefit you for the rest of your life :)

Re: A career ending mistake

#52

Post by BadCookie »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #37
crrndngmstk wrote: post #21

To me, this reveals an uncomfortable truth: - I know I'm not technically skilled enough to make it to the higher levels of IC - I know I lack the people skills & charisma to make it to the higher levels of management I'm aware I can improve in both and I accept that, to some extent, it's a laziness and confidence issue. But to some people it seems to come naturally and it's hard not to assume I'm in the majority that…

You could be a technical PM. Bit of a “day walker” with a foot in both the tech and people worlds.

It seems like all the technical PM jobs require that you’ve already held that title for several years. Or maybe I take job descriptions too literally.

Re: A career ending mistake

#54

Post by moonchrome »

znq wrote: post #14
giantg2 wrote: post #5

"It's not surprising, then, that many of us find ourselves in less than fully satisfying jobs, with doubtful or non-existent prospects for advancement." Very true. I can't wait for my career to be over. I don't think I'll ever find the position where I feel I belong, so I'll just be miserable anywhere now that I know how broken the system really is.

I hope people don't see this as spam (especially since in the past I've talked a lot about this), but I've started Mobile Jazz (my first company) specifically because I wanted to created a place where I and others feel happy. A place where increasing revenue and profit to the extreme is not the focus, but employee happiness is. We call it "Optimizing for Happiness". We've written a lot about it in our company handboo…

I'm fine with being civil and approachable but I really don't want to make the effort of being friendly with people I work with just because higher ups think this will compensate for below market salary. If I click somewhere that's great but I don't really see a correlation with a good work environment.

Re: A career ending mistake

#55

Post by jdlyga »

The way I see it, managing people is not your main objective even as a team lead. Your primary responsibility is to drive the project forward and get the work done, and managing people is the how. So in essence, you'll be doing a lot of people management but you should be laser focused on the project your team is working on. It's like the difference between writing code for code's sake and writing code to solve a problem.

Re: A career ending mistake

#56

Post by dvtrn »

kosievdmerwe wrote: post #30
tdumitrescu wrote: post #27

Feels like the "senior IC" role described in this article corresponds mainly to today's "3-5 years of experience 'senior' engineer" roles. The reality that I've seen and experienced is that advancing beyond that on an IC track means a lot more people/political work, rather than constant "hands on keyboard" coding as described in the article. It's not the same as management, but it's inevitably more meetings and evang…

This is something people seem hesitant to realize: that after a certain point you can only grow your career by "managing" other people. This is true in a lot of (most?) fields. At some point you cannot become more productive as an individual and you need to start coordinating the work of many people if you want to increase your productivity. This can of course take many forms, but the essence is inescapable.

At some point you cannot become more productive as an individual and you need to start coordinating the work of many people if you want to increase your productivity.

Neat. Another manifestation of the attitude regarding productivity of "more, more, and more still" as the default trajectory in the name of 'growth'. Calling it "inescapable" even. Sheesh. What's the point at which we realize "enough" productivity is exactly "enough" and give people the agency and autonomy to perform where they are most capable at a velocity of work that is stable, sustainable and...fuck it, I'll say it: sane?

Commenter, please understand: this isn't an attack on you for merely saying it, but is instead a full-frontal assault on the concept in general because honeslty...personally...I'm sick of it.

Alright, I'm done venting.

Re: A career ending mistake

#57

Post by krosaen »

tdumitrescu wrote: post #27

Feels like the "senior IC" role described in this article corresponds mainly to today's "3-5 years of experience 'senior' engineer" roles. The reality that I've seen and experienced is that advancing beyond that on an IC track means a lot more people/political work, rather than constant "hands on keyboard" coding as described in the article. It's not the same as management, but it's inevitably more meetings and evang…

The answer to this for me has been to transition to something more specialized: from full stack developer to working in robotics. The previous skills are still relevant and all the new domain knowledge keeps me interested. The combo of domain knowledge and software skills is more rare, so it feels a bit more satisfying than working as a senior IC the way I did 10+ years ago 5 years into my software career out of college. And I still spend my days not in meetings, thinking about how to solve hard problems and implementing solutions. I haven't (yet) felt compelled to rise up the senior staff / fellow or whatever levels where you end up in meetings anyways. And not to knock the super senior folks who do this well, I just still really like coding for the time being.

Re: A career ending mistake

#58

Post by lostcolony »

crrndngmstk wrote: post #21

To me, this reveals an uncomfortable truth: - I know I'm not technically skilled enough to make it to the higher levels of IC - I know I lack the people skills & charisma to make it to the higher levels of management I'm aware I can improve in both and I accept that, to some extent, it's a laziness and confidence issue. But to some people it seems to come naturally and it's hard not to assume I'm in the majority that…

I'll remind you that the higher levels of IC and management also are a narrowing pyramid. The reality is that the expectation is people move up to a certain point through experience, and that at that point most will stay there.

Re: A career ending mistake

#59

Post by allo37 »

crrndngmstk wrote: post #21

To me, this reveals an uncomfortable truth: - I know I'm not technically skilled enough to make it to the higher levels of IC - I know I lack the people skills & charisma to make it to the higher levels of management I'm aware I can improve in both and I accept that, to some extent, it's a laziness and confidence issue. But to some people it seems to come naturally and it's hard not to assume I'm in the majority that…

I kind of want to work for a FAANG just to meet these wizards who make you feel humbled by their technical prowess (I assume that's where they all are?). Everywhere I've worked for so far, the senior people have usually:

a) Been there a long time;

b) Are very knowledgeable about that company and its tech, clients, etc. (see a);

Of course, they're skilled technically too, but not in a "I could never dream of being that smart" kind of way.

Re: A career ending mistake

#60

Post by svnt »

duxup wrote: post #42

I changed careers at 40+ years old. I'm very happy that I did it. People have all sorts of constructs / ideas about how careers work (based on experience) or how they think it works, or how they want it to work. I talk to some college graduates who tell me what they're planning for and have ZERO clue what industry they're talking about, their description is unrecognizable to me ... even tho I know it is the one I wor…

Totally. Look at the quotes he’s pulling and then he somehow vectors into three predefined end points.

Dude is waiting to crack open, telling himself he can fit the ideas from all the reading he’s recently been doing into the concrete pipeline of a career he’s built.

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