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posh spaz posted:That's a really interesting article. I have a friend in Silicon Valley. He's pretty well connected and could probably open some doors for me, but I find most of that culture as offensive as Wall Street in the 80s. ultrafilter posted:The people who are going into SV now are the people who would've gone into Wall Street back then. JIZZ DENOUEMENT posted:What's wrong with SV and the tech sector? Isn't it a really relaxed and free form work environment? Silicon Valley is just one, albeit large and very visible/vocal, microcosm of tech and IT. It's a massive and extremely broad industry. It's by no means "tech = SV startup culture".
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Jan 6, 2015 22:54
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litany of gulps posted:For what its worth, you work like half the year and get a million days off. This is the biggest misconception about teachers ever and it needs to die.
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Mar 12, 2015 18:20
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Shadowhand00 posted:I'm much more leaning towards #2 and I can't find any benefits in being a contractor outside of slightly more pay (even thougH i have to pay double-tax on it. After taxes I'm pretty sure that 1099-ing at $72.50/hr would be less pay than W2-ing at $145k, assuming standard full-time with no major overtime pay. They're effectively the same hourly rate ($72.50 x 2000 = $145,000) but W2 gets a bit preferable tax treatment and is also just less hassle than 1099. All else being equal (like assuming contractors aren't second-class citizens, which they are at some places) I guess it really comes down to what the benefits comparison is between contracting and FTE.
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Mar 16, 2015 22:49
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T. J. Eckleburg posted:I'm also open to other paths. I've been advised by a somewhat suspect source that I wouldn't need the master's degree if I could point to big projects on github that I've contributed significantly to, but I don't know how to learn how to do that. I see this huge gap between my current abilities (code a little calculator or other toys) and being an actual useful software engineer, and I don't know how to fill it. Codeacademy is cool and all but I am pretty sure it won't give me the experience I need to work on big, complicated projects. You definitely do not need a masters degree to become a software developer. A masters in computer science doesn't really teach you practical software development skills, it's much more mathematical and theoretical. Computer science != software development. Also if you have enough qualifications to get into a good masters program in CS or SE you are more than likely already qualified enough to get a development job. The much more practical path would be to just start working on software development projects/problems that you think are interesting. Maybe you don't think you have the skills, but if you've done basic Python, Java, and C++ and can breeze through things like Codeacademy I guarantee you that you have enough base level knowledge to start hacking and learning on your own. There's no better way to learn how to write software than by writing software. Who cares if its "bad" or if your first designs don't work out, you learn SO MUCH by just trying to tackle a problem, researching tools and solutions, and trying to put them together into a working application. Software development is fortunate and somewhat unique in that there is an absolute mountain of information out there for free or for cheap, and many huge communities that discuss, teach, help, and collaborate on projects, design patterns, tools, techniques, algorithms, you name it. There's so much information out there that it can at times be overwhelming, but being able to search and comb through all that information is also a big part of being a successful software developer. Being a motivated, quick self-learner is an invaluable skill. If you say that you know Python (or whatever) and can demonstrate that claim reasonably well in an interview and/or with projects you've made then most people aren't going to care if you have a degree in CS, much less a masters, for a junior/mid-level developer position. Trying to do an internal transfer across skill areas in a large company can be an infinite waiting game. If you're serious about making the transition to development, I wouldn't necessarily plan on staying at the same company unless you are very friendly with some people who can pull some strings. If you work hard at learning and doing some side projects in the next 1-2 years I think it's entirely reasonable that you could get a dev job at a small-medium size company in a tech hub in that time frame. Whichever path you take is going to take a lot of time and hard work, but if you're as motivated as you say you are you should be excited to dive in. If you think you're interested in programming, you should start programming something today. Pick a problem or a project or an application or something, start a git repo, learn the ins and outs of git, set up a build process, write tests, and just generally dig in. Be lost and overwhelmed, have false starts, scrap it, start over, repeat, try different libraries and frameworks, and just keep going. Even if it is something that seems trivial, just do it. If its as trivial as you think, then it should be easy but you'll be surprised how much work it is to truly finish and polish a project. You will learn a poo poo load, I promise, and as you tackle bigger problems you will naturally be led into learning about algorithms, data structures, design patterns, etc., and at that point you'll have great context and background knowledge for picking up books on the subjects. Never stop learning. I graduated with a BS in Economics ( and a BA in History  ) ~5 years ago. I've transitioned from a data analyst to QA/SDET to an SDE in that time by jumping jobs a couple of times. Much like you, I had taken a couple of classes in programming and had a general computer geek background which also involved some scripting/programming/database stuff, but otherwise I am largely self-taught and have no problem keeping up with my CS degree-holding colleagues. Some of our best SDEs don't have CS degrees, many of which are ex-Amazon/Microsoft, and we're writing serious applications for large businesses, not just another throw-away mobile app.
Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Mar 27, 2015 |
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Mar 27, 2015 20:43
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I don't know anything about ISTQB, but I'm going to guess like most entry-level certifications it's hardly worth the paper it's printed on. I also have no idea what your current skill set or qualifications are so my advice is going to be super duper general. I got started in tech doing software QA, which quickly developed into automated testing, and then more into infrastructure automation (devops), and then into full-time software development a couple years down the road. I've been a tester, I've worked with a lot of testers, and I continue to work with testers. My advice to anyone just starting as a QA is: start learning to program. Even if you have no aspirations of being a software developer, the software world is quickly evolving toward more automated and programmatic testing. Having some basic programming chops is not only vital for automation purposes but it is invaluable in helping you understand what it is you're actually testing. Understanding what the basics of the debugging process are makes your ability to do defect analysis so much more valuable. Being able to read and understand log files and data dumps, monitor network traffic, troubleshoot environment configurations, and things like that puts you easily in the top 25% of testers. If you can do some simple programming to begin automating deployment, log gathering/parsing, populating databases with test data, etc. then you're in the top 10%. If you can write an automated integration test suites then you're top 1%. There are still a lot of all-manual, low-tech, black-box testers at large enterprises, but that's kind of a dead-end career path IMO. The glass ceiling is fairly low in terms of pay, the industry trends are moving to depend on it less and less, and if you ask me it's also just mind-numbingly boring. Not going away entirely any time soon, though. But at smaller companies in a faster-paced environment those types of people are just dead weight. That said, if you start working more toward a more technically-hands on test role like an SDET or QAE then really the world is your oyster for the foreseeable future.
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Jul 18, 2015 02:26
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FWIW, one of the best Linux security/admin guys I've ever known has a BA & MA in English. The guy will never be unemployed because of his skill and his network.
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Jan 8, 2016 03:12
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it is posted:I don't think "I'm primarily motivated by constant progress but I'm in a career where progress is gated behind long exploratory phases of indeterminate size" is that e/n but ok. That's what progress is when working on hard, professional-level problems both in engineering and outside of it. You're not a factory line worker, your progress and productivity can't be measured by how many widgets you produced today. That's a solved problem, and that's why it's a low-skill job with low compensation. Turns out that to get past the beginner stage of anything, you have to endure some boredom and put in some work. And it's not like playing a video game with floating arrows and quest logs telling you exactly what to do and congratulating you on your progress at every step of the way. I understand that it is sometimes difficult to feel weeks go by without something tangible and concrete to point to as progress or productivity, but that's just a natural part of analyzing and solving novel problems. Hard, long-term interesting work often does not have clear objectives and metrics, that's why engineers get paid a lot to be professional problem solvers. I have a friend with a similar mindset and in the past 10 years since college graduation he has started and then quit about 5 different careers, and now despite having 10 years of working experience he cannot claim to actually have more than 1-2 years experience in anything. He's junior level, at best, at a bunch of stuff rather than the mid-to-senior level that he could/should be at this point. It also bleeds into his social and personal life and has a hard time maintaining friends and relationships because he gets "bored" with things and people once they are no longer "new and exciting". It's a real problem. Being a perpetual beginner is not a good goal to have in life or your career. Going from engineeering to grocery store clerk is by almost all objective measures a huge step backwards. Maybe your specific company, team, or specific role is not a good fit for you and you should look for a change in one of those areas. Maybe you need to feed your thirst for "new and exciting" with hobbies, activities, and personal projects outside of work like many people do. Maybe you need an attitude adjustment.
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Apr 21, 2016 19:47
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I would not recommend doing desktop support or help desk if you want to do development. Not saying that it absolutely will not lead to a better job, but in a lot of places those are dead end jobs. Focus on getting a development or QA job.
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May 26, 2016 17:07
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ultrafilter posted:A help desk position could be good if it gives you more time outside the office to work on what you actually want to do, but yeah, it's probably not going to lead to a development job through any official pathway. QA can if you get involved in scripted testing, but even that's a little tricky. Yeah, QA is a really broad term and depending on the type of QA work you do it could either easily lead into development, or very much be a dead end. If as part of QA you're doing automated testing, performance testing & analysis, environment/build management, deep-dive debugging and root cause analysis, and stuff like that then you're already effectively writing and managing code so it should be relatively easy to transition into full time development as you gain experience. More often than not this is usually called "QA Engineer", but not always. If you're just a black box tester that follows manual test scripts and fills in test execution reports then you'll be hard pressed to naturally transition into development without a lot of personal on-the-side effort. That said, I started as a QAE (of the first type above) and transitioned into full-time development, and I've got a couple of friends/colleagues who have done the same. If you've got technical chops but are just a bit low on experience the barrier to entry for QA tends to be lower than dev. And it's also easier to stand out as talented amongst your peers and move up/out, too. Guinness fucked around with this message at 19:00 on May 27, 2016 |
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May 27, 2016 18:57
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Combatace posted:but the job listings are so barren in that (Seattle/Tacoma area) Not sure where you're looking but the general tech industry is bananas in the Seattle area. Anything but barren.
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Feb 28, 2017 21:03
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FWIW, I have an Economics BS and became a Sr. Software Dev without formal training. I did take some programming and data modeling classes in college, but no heavy CS. But I'm a huge nerd and legitimately self-studied and built some apps and web pages and poo poo, and also worked in Software QA & automation as a transition step. So it definitely can be done, but it's not something he'll just fall in to without some real intentionality. I've toyed with the idea, and even interviewed for, roles in data science, and it's a big murky field that means something different to everyone. At some places it's a fancy sounding title for a spreadsheet jockey, and at other places it's the team of multiple-PhD having statisticians doing actual, statistically valid analysis on enormous data sets. And there is everything in between. Ultimately it didn't really appeal to me, but it does to a lot people and there's a lot of job potential there since it is so nascent. And yeah, if he's sociable, any sort of consulting is an option, too. I'm technically a consultant, and having some soft skills for dealing with customers and their engineering teams directly goes a long, long way. In consulting I'd rather than a B+ developer with good social/people skills than an A+ autist.
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Apr 3, 2017 19:54
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There are a handful of bootcamps that are arguably worth it, but probably a whole lot more that are wastes of time and money. And likely very location dependent as well with connections and opportunities. But my company has now hired six grads of one of the OG bootcamps in Seattle over the past couple years and they've all been great. Four of six are still with us, and the two that left went to high profile companies. Our hit rate for good candidates, albeit junior, has been way better than the usual recruiting sources. With some good dev lead support and mentoring we've been able to get them up to speed and valuable fairly quickly. I have a few friends who have gone through the same bootcamp and have grown into quite successful development careers. They legit worked their rear end off and hustled hard, but still. Guinness fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Apr 5, 2017 |
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Apr 5, 2017 05:39
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mad_Thick posted:as I dislike programming Then your choice is made for you. A data analyst who can't/won't program isn't worth anything, especially long term.
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Jun 18, 2017 20:15
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Mons Hubris posted:How bad is it for your resume to take time off and learn to code or something if you have no debt and your wife makes enough money that you can survive for a while on one income? If it means that the end result is that you have some demonstrable programming skills then I wouldn't count it against you. That you had the motivation to self-motivate, self-direct, and self-educate would look favorable in my eyes, but you may find mixed opinions. It will likely depend on the company and culture, but I think you could make it work if you have a "portfolio" of sorts to show off. But yeah, becoming a real professional developer isn't really something you can casually pick up from zero in a couple of months in your own time. You'd likely be better off getting started now in your spare time, and if you get to the point where you think you are close then take a few months to really buckle down try to make the leap. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Jun 29, 2017 |
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Jun 29, 2017 20:06
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REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS posted:Is an MBA still a worthwhile thing to pursue? It seems like everyone and their mom had or was going for one a few years back. If someone else is paying for it and it aligns with the direction you want to go (i.e., upper management), arguably yes. If you're paying for it yourself and doing it just because you can't think of anything else to do, likely no.
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Aug 7, 2017 19:00
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a dingus posted:Don't quit and take the time off to learn that stuff. Use your gently caress you money to start being crappy at your job and learn during those hours. If you get canned, that sucks but if you don't youve learned a new skill and collected a paycheck. Seconded. And if you can, try to diversify the technologies that you use in your day to day work toward what you want to be doing as much as you can. Also don't worry about being "certified" in anything. Nowhere worth working gives a poo poo about certifications for software dev. It's all about what you can demonstrably do. Tech interviewing sucks balls, but you might be surprised how well you do with your breadth of experience. If you can pass the initial sniff test (basic tech screen) then it tends to be a lot less lovely after that. Unfortunately it may take a couple of tries to have a good interview that clicks since a lot of places are bad at quantifying what they are actually looking for, and even worse at interviewing for it, plus there's just some random chance and luck involved. Don't beat yourself up if you feel like you totally flunked an interview. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 20:45
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Edgar Allan Pwned posted:ive asked my dad and perused the Internet and im getting different answers, so Ill ask Goons: I think you'll get mixed responses, as you've already experienced. There's no singular "right" answer and it will depend on your circumstances. In general, 1 year is a pretty short stint. BUT, early in your career your skills are likely developing quicker than your pay raises account for. And 30k for programming is very very low, even for a newbie. What part of the country are you in? In major tech cities (granted with higher COL) even junior devs can be making 80-100k. What sort of programming work are you doing, and how in depth has your experience been? Do you have a degree (any degree) already? You can do well in the tech world without a CS degree as long as your self-education and work experience can show that you know what you're doing. I think you should scout around for new possibilities, but don't quit your current job yet. Start feeling out what's out there, maybe get some interviews and see how you fare and feel. If you find somewhere new that seems good and pays a lot better I wouldn't sweat leaving after only a year. Especially this early in your career.
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Apr 5, 2018 18:53
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“My current role doesn’t align with my career goals of [x,y,z]”. And then hopefully you can relate those goals to why you want to be at the new company. But really you don’t have to explain yourself much, but under no circumstances should you poo poo talk your old company or boss. It’s an immediate red flag that will sink you. Even if it’s true.
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Apr 6, 2019 18:44
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At this point, when I review resumes and interview people I'm more skeptical of people that have been at the same place for 10+ years than I am people that have moved around a bit. In general the world just doesn't work that way anymore and it shows a lack of drive and self-worth. It's obviously not black and white and it's case by case, but there's a trend. Yeah if you've got nothing but ten years of 1 year stints, that's not a good look either. As always the answer lies somewhere in the middle. After 7.5 years in one place no one is going to give you any guff about leaving.
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Apr 15, 2019 01:52
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spwrozek posted:I think it depends. A 10 year engineer with the same company doesn't make me pause. Should they put every promotion they got while doing the exact same job? Yes, listing your promotion history is both honest and shows career/skills development and makes spending a long time in one place make more sense. But if one has been doing the exact same job they don’t really sound like promotions... Even if it’s “just” going from engineer to senior engineer, theoretically that promotion should come with (or be a recognition of) more responsibilities and leadership roles, technical or otherwise.
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Apr 15, 2019 05:15
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REMEMBER SPONGE MONKEYS posted:So is it a bad idea when interviewing to answer the “why are you looking to change jobs?” Question with wanting to move home/be closer to family? I don’t want to lose any bargaining power, I’ll have little enough as is, I suspect. I think that is a totally fine thing to throw in, but maybe as a kind of “secondary” reason to why you’re excited about this company/job in particular. Emphasize why you are excited to work there and not just anywhere else nearby.
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Jun 7, 2019 06:11
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Just FYI, Agile is not an acronym so don't put it on your resume as such, it'll be an immediate red flag.
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Sep 3, 2019 23:53
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“But it’s cheap to live here!” is like the worst selling point for any sort of competitive or skilled profession, and it almost always means that the place suuuucks. It’s cheap because there’s likely not much going on and little opportunity. You still often come out ahead even in high COL areas because the compensation more than makes up for it, plus there’s just way more opportunity for career advancement and relationship building in a competitive location.
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Sep 5, 2019 18:51
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I think you're generally on the right track. Most business or data analyst type jobs involve working with some suite of software for collecting/querying data and writing reports or slide decks about some aspect of the business or client. The term is pretty general though so it can mean a lot of different things and levels of expertise depending on the company and role. If you know some basic programming you likely have a good head start. If you can say that you can work competently with basic SQL that's a big bullet point to emphasize. If you can do some basic report automation type work with python or javascript that's another huge bullet point. The skills required are a lot less than something like a software developer. A little bit goes a long way, you'd be surprised. It's not the most glorious work but it can absolutely be a stepping stone to a ton of more technical and specialized roles. Another similar track to consider would be software QA. If you've got a general familiarity with software and programming it's a decent entry level gig. Edit: almost forgot the 9000 pound gorilla, Excel. If you're good with Excel's "advanced" features there's a lot of spreadsheet jockeying that analysts do so it can be a good resume item Guinness fucked around with this message at 01:24 on May 26, 2020 |
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May 26, 2020 01:22
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Empress Brosephine posted:Wtf the average 31 year old male makes 60k? I make like 30k It's going to be really region and industry specific, but 30k isn't even full-time minimum wage in an increasing number of cities. Even in rural America 30k is not a lot these days, especially for a degree holder.
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Sep 28, 2020 19:26
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Breath Ray posted:is there a sabbatical thread in BFC? that's my first move, a bit of travelling. it would be interesting to see how many people go back to their old jobs and how many do something new I don't know that there is a thread, and I don't have much to contribute to it, but every (non-academic) colleague I've ever had that took a sabbatical never came back to that job and ended up eventually doing something else. And I don't blame them. Sabbaticals seem a bit more normal in academia, at least for the lucky tenured folks.
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Oct 2, 2020 18:50
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A good friend of mine had a similar romantic ideal about farming, having grown up as a city kid and working office jobs. Despite his supposed love of farming, he never did any gardening, landscaping, caring for animals, or anything of the sort. Just read a few books about "sustainable agriculture" and got really into the idea of being a farmer. He actually ended up doing it. He moved across the country to a rural farm with some people that were trying to turn-around an old, unproductive family farm with all these new sustainable techniques. Long story short, the romance died in short order and he didn't last even 6 months at it. Now he works at Google
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Nov 18, 2020 21:30
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punk rebel ecks posted:I really think I'm going to get a bachelor's degree in computer science. I see it as a preferred, if not a requirement, in most job listings and I don't want to be hamstrung in the application process. I don't mean to totally discourage this, but I don't think it is the optimal path toward a tech career especially if you already have a bachelor's of any kind. If you don't have a bachelor's at all, then I support the plan a bit more. A bachelor's degree is perhaps the most expensive and slowest method to take on, and it still doesn't guarantee you much of anything job-wise since it is highly theoretical and academic compared to practical job skills. Many foundational CS courses are math classes, not programming classes. All valuable knowledge, but if you're primarily looking to get practical skills for a job then starting from first principles in a classroom is perhaps not the best method. Plus the opportunity cost of spending a couple years, minimum, to graduate. All those job postings saying that a CS degree is required are misleading. Most of them don't actually care it's just HR job req boilerplate. Experience and demonstrable skills are far, far more important. I don't have a CS degree. At least half of my team doesn't have a CS degree. As an applicant, we don't particularly care if you have a CS degree, but our job posting probably says we do because it's just the stupid reality we live in that every job req says that. There's obviously a chicken-or-egg problem there, with getting experience, and that's where self-education and working on projects like a real web or mobile app and not just repeating tutorial hell come in. This is the sort of thing a bootcamp will (or should) focus on compared to a university program. Regardless of the path you choose, I just want to reiterate what others have said: there is no easy path. Software development is hard and full of ambiguity. The domain is vast, complex, and "unsolved" compared to many trades that are more "by the book". There is no book to go by. In fact it's even worse than that, there are a thousand different books to go by all saying different things, and new ones being written every day for better or worse. Part of being a software engineer is being able to wrangle this ambiguity and be comfortable with continually not knowing the answer and then researching and working to find a solution. And then continually fixing all the little (or big!) mistakes you made along the way. The more you know, the more you know you don't know. Software dev is so in demand and hard to fill because it is difficult and broad and ill-defined and requires a skillset and mentality that is not for everyone. There is no standardized curriculum or recognized certification that signals competence or achievement. That it is an accessible industry without a CS degree I think speaks more to the fact that a CS degree is pretty disconnected from actual development work, not that the industry is easy or openminded. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 20:14
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Also, good/reputable bootcamps tend to have connections in place for internship and entry-level placements at companies willing to take on junior and non-traditional folks. Sometimes up to and including FAANG-like companies. This is like half the benefit of a good bootcamp. But you will still have to do proper interviews and nothing is guaranteed, but it's a huge advantage. The fine print in a lot of those "guaranteed jobs" is that you get at least one offer from anyone. Even if it's a terrible company and a terrible fit, they "got you a job" and fulfilled their end of the contract. You want to aim higher than that. I can't help but get the sense from your posts that you're looking for the cheat codes to a tech job, or want to just pay someone else to get you there. This approach isn't going to pan out in the long run. Even if you do a bootcamp or university program you're still going to need to do hundreds to thousands of hours of solo work on your own time to self-educate, grow skills, and practice on real world problems and projects. This will involve spending a lot of time getting stuck and banging your head against the wall until you get unstuck. If you can't get started on that right now on your own volition given the endless amount of free resources out there I think you're going to be facing a very uphill battle. Day to day developer life is not all that different in the sorts of challenges you face: unclear requirements, frustrating ambiguity, poor documentation, and no golden path guidance. Apologies if that is a harsh read on the situation, but for better advice I think you need to start narrowing down what it is that you're after and reset expectations about how to get there. Guinness fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jan 20, 2021 |
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Jan 20, 2021 20:40
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Folks have been giving some really great advice re: management track. I just wanted to emphasize that management is not always necessarily the "next step" for an engineer. It's a different job with different responsibilities, and has been said you will likely struggle with some or all of it for some time as a new manager. Unless you actually really want to be a manager because you want the responsibility and duties, I don't recommend jumping in to it especially at a dysfunctional, toxic place where you've already got one foot out the door, at least mentally. I had a foray into engineering management a few years ago. At the time it seemed like my only near-term opportunity to move up at the company I was with. I don't necessarily regret it, but in retrospect it wasn't the right place/right time. I was looking for career growth and pay raises, and I took the "easy" thing in front of me. I made it about a year and a half before jumping ship. I ended up moving to a different company returning to a senior IC role, and found the career growth and pay raise I was looking for (and then some). As the old saying goes, the best raise you can get is changing companies. For your sake, and the sake of your reports, please only go into management if it's something you really want to do and are devoted to getting better at. And for what it's worth, my experience in software (so YMMV) has been that there is a dire lack of and burning need for good engineering management. At a couple of companies now the opportunity to go from senior IC to management is an open door because so few engineers want to do it. And many of those that do try it, like myself, bail on it after a couple years. Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 26, 2021 18:28
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Nirvikalpa posted:Let me rephrase my question. Is there something I could feasibly do *right now* with the technical skills I've learned from economics? Or are the only jobs I'm qualified for the ones that require a generic bachelors degree? Various "analyst" jobs and stuff adjacent to data science might be up your alley. A little bit of data manipulation and programming knowledge can go a long way, and to some extent can be self-taught on the job. Something like Stata can be good to know, but honestly just being a whiz at Excel, Tableau, and basic SQL probably qualifies you for a ton of entry-mid level stuff. All things you can self-study to a basic competency relatively easily. I'm an econ major as well. It's been over 10 years now but I started out as a marketing data analyst at a digital marketing agency. I did a lot of kind of grunt work reporting and data research stuff, nothing that complicated but it was real experience. For a first job it was pretty good. My direction was rather quickly toward pure software development, but business analysts of many flavors are common and increasingly under the (very broad) umbrella of data science and analytics. It's a good step into a lot of business-y office jobs, or into technical specialties.
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Sep 8, 2021 21:05
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I'm in software so it's not exactly the same, but I tried management for about a year and a half before bailing back to the IC track. I was still doing engineering work as a front-line manager so it was easy for me to transition back (at a different company, with a giant raise). If you stay in management a long time and get further and further from the engineering it could be more difficult to switch back.Crazyweasel posted:From what I’ve seen in Engineering, the Tech Leads that climb the parallel ladder to Engineering Management are people who very clearly do not want to be encumbered with dealing with the HR overhead and responsibilities that come with being a Manager. Hi it's me My work stays technical but has some management-like skills like leading projects & teams, delegating work, making/influencing technical priorities and staffing, mentoring and developing juniors, etc. but I don't have to deal with the "people problems" of real management. For real ladder climbers I think there is a reasonably strong argument that management has a higher ceiling of career prestige, but staff+ ICs get paid plenty well for a different lifestyle. Guinness fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Nov 16, 2022 |
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Nov 16, 2022 22:23
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Lockback posted:Buddy I got bad news about your paydays Career Path Thread: Buddy I got bad news about your paydays
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May 10, 2023 01:47
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 23:39 |
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Unless you really want to be a manager and know why you want to do it, I advise against it. Being a manager is not a promotion it is an entirely different job and skill set. Your day to day and the metrics you are evaluated on will be entirely different. I tried it because I felt a little stuck in my job and wanted a "promotion" not because I actually wanted to be a manager. It was a bad fit and what I should have done was look elsewhere for better IC opportunities. Which I did a year and a half later, back to IC elsewhere for more money and better work. But if you do actually want to be a manager, then go for it. But IME there's always opportunity because there's always a shortage of good EMs. At multiple companies it's basically been an open invitation because so few ICs want to do it or stick with it after realizing what the job actually is. edit: after writing this I realize this is the general career advice thread not the software-specific one, and my bias is in software/tech that has an actual career-long IC ladder with a high ceiling that doesn't force you into management if you want to make more money. And that is definitely not the case in all industries so take that with a grain of salt I guess. Guinness fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Feb 1, 2024 |
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Feb 1, 2024 22:12
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