I'd totally grab her book if it wasn't almost $40. Cracking the Coding Interview was amazingly helpful during my job search.
How to go from Dev to PM
31–35 of 35 posts
Re: How to go from Dev to PM
#32Take some management classes. I'm not saying you have to take an MBA, but being able to code and being able to manage people are not the same talent. In many situations, they're quite the opposite. And you had to show off your coding cred before being hired for it. The same should apply for management.
I'm not disagreeing, but can you explain under which situations coding and managing are on the opposite parts of the spectrum?
Pretty much all aspects.
Have you ever sworn at your computer?
As a result of swearing at your computer did it refuse to work for you the next day?
Have you ever had to bring your computer into an office sit it down and ask it to come in earlier even though you don't really care what time it shows up?
Have you ever had to defend your computer making a typo and costing the company $100,000 to people who are so careless as to ignore the redlines under their misspelled words in the email regarding this issue?
As a manager you are a human shit shield for the people beneath you. In addition to being a human shit shield whenever the budget is cut you must pick who gets a paycheque and who doesn't when the budget is cut. At the end of the day after letting people go, you toss a coin walk into your managers office and then find out if you made the cut.
The only really good thing about being a manager is that when comically stupid decisions get made all you have to do is keep a straight face and delegate actually implementing it to someone instead of having to code the atrocity yourself.
Re: How to go from Dev to PM
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Article fails to explain why a dev would desire to become a PM." (in most companies) more money, power, autonomy. Except in very early stage startups, it is the rare developer who has more of any of this than even the lowliest PM. e.g: I think Vic Gundotra makes more money, and has more power at Google than most (all?) engineers there.
I'm not sure this is true, at least in the current climate. At our (Series B) startup, PMs make about half what engineers do.
Not to discount your experience, but at the large enterprises (Amazon, Microsoft, Google, etc.), Program Managers make the same money as Software Developers at equivalent titles. Program Managers are not JIRA monkeys (I love JIRA, by the way), but generally have coded in the past and have a better grip on reality than some MBA candidates.
The tradeoff is this:
1) PMs get broader visibility across the org, which tends to result in faster promotions into management for "good" PMs.
2) PMs atrophy technical skills and become more dependent on the larger organization (they acquire more firm-specific skills in econ talk) than do equivalent developers.
So, sometimes if you like your company and want to advance quicker, you will be willing to trade away some industry or general skills for firm-specific skills to get faster promotions or more power.
Re: How to go from Dev to PM
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not disagreeing, but can you explain under which situations coding and managing are on the opposite parts of the spectrum?
Pretty much all aspects. Have you ever sworn at your computer? As a result of swearing at your computer did it refuse to work for you the next day? Have you ever had to bring your computer into an office sit it down and ask it to come in earlier even though you don't really care what time it shows up? Have you ever had to defend your computer making a typo and costing the company $100,000 to people who are so careles…
golf clap
Re: How to go from Dev to PM
#35no idea