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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?

#51

Post by lanaius »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #43
lwhalen wrote: post #32

What 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…

Here's the problem with that reasoning. As OP implies she has enjoyed leading/managing within her own companies. Before my company was acquired it was thrilling to perform these duties even though it was more grueling. So it's not necessarily a matter of not being cut out for that kind of work.

I read it more as the OP had their own company where they were in charge of making decisions AND executing them, and there's no real indication of managing employees. I suspect they enjoyed the execution. If they don't enjoy dealing with people's crap and putting out fires, senior management of any reasonably large group is probably not for them - and that's absolutely okay.

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

#52

Post by lanaius »

sputr wrote: post #50

The 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.

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

#53

Post by arviewer »

Find out what you REALLY want. Find your motives. Find the underlying essential motivation. That's much deeper than coding or not handling crap. Those are superficial symptoms, not what makes you move.

Find a good professional coach that can help you with finding this out. Pay money for it. You probably can spend several thousands $$$ on this. Not that it needs to be that expensive, but $1000-$2000 is easily spent.

If you quit this good paying job, while it may actually have the opportunity to bring you to your dream job, it's worth staying there long enough to get your things together.

http://simainternational.com/coaching/strategic-life-career/ This is a link to SIMA, about motivational assessment. There are more methods. This is just a starter, but it may be right for you. Be sure to find an experienced coach.

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

#54

Post by jjuel »

PedroBatista wrote: post #28
koide wrote: post #13

That's life. The higher you go, the more crap you have to eat so those who deal with executing can execute without distractions. If you don't want to eat crap, you have to stay at a lower level (team lead/distinguished engineer/r&d labs) On the other hand, being that high should indeed get you ownership and control, if you don't have it question your relationship with the CEO/rest of the company. You should own and b…

So.. about that non-eating crap low level job, any open position for me? :)

Exactly. As they say, crap travels downhill.

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

#56

Post by WhitneyLand »

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…

Given your technical background, be sure to involve someone with a strong sales/marketing point of view whether that's a cofounder, investor, or friend. Moreover make sure it's a relevant point of view. For example, someone with a great b2b pedigree won't necessarily add the most value if you're starting a consumer focused company. Most importantly, best of luck to you -

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

#57

Post by sailfast »

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…

> 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 / smaller places) or is this really just because us technical people like to build things more than manage things?

This is super interesting input - I think that on this answer, depends a lot of the future of companies, but also where technical folks can and should target. (Although you mention CEO which, I mean, that's a leadership role too hehe)

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

#58

Post by timwaagh »

just take a nice vacation for a few months. ill fly in to do your job in exchange for 50% of the salary. after you've made up your you can either come back or not (and ill be a rich mofo muhahaha). the lesson being: if you get such a position and then complain about it being no fun then you are the problem. its an honor to be the boss. it makes a lot of money. if its no fun, well cleaning toilets for $5 an hour is no fun either but people do it anyways.
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