Jumping from technical path to management path

[Mide]

In my experience I have mainly seen technical people get into management positions when there either have been specialized openings in a different department or through attrition (boss leaves and the next competent IT worker is assigned to take over vs. going through HR to fill the void). In both of these situations, the company already knows that said worker is fairly good and may be a good fit.

So has anybody seen an external candidate get an IT management level position with only education and many years of technical experience? No direct reports, not responsible for budgets, etc...

My assumption is that most of the time, you'll have to do an internal jump at one company, get the experience in mgmt, then make a different jump to another company.

 

[brianmanahan]

i know a tech guy whose career was in a niche product. he got fired because we quit using it, then he was kinda screwed cuz nobody else was hiring for that product. so he looked for jobs for about 18 months, and finally got in as a first-level manager for desktop support guys.

probably not the best way to transition though

 

[MrDudeMan]

Been there. Done that. Hated it. Quit and went back to technical.

 

[nickbits]

I've seen it done. Old boss groomed new boss (dev) for role. I had as similar experience and was given a couple direct reports but no training or had no idea what I was supposed to do with them, other than full out their yearly evaluations.
But if the current boss isn't looking to replace himself, i have no idea

 

[Blanky]

Been there. Done that. Hated it. Quit and went back to technical.

The more I dabble in non-technical the more I learn it is what I am built for. I have a co worker next to me who dicks around on the phone all day and in excel and it seems to be a huge load of rubbish. He thinks he is quite special but ultimately it is people like me who keep the power on. I think I like it that way. Resumes these days need to be tailored to an analyst type role even if you like technical stuff though, I think.

 

[brianmanahan]

The more I dabble in non-technical the more I learn it is what I am built for. I have a co worker next to me who dicks around on the phone all day and in excel and it seems to be a huge load of rubbish. He thinks he is quite special but ultimately it is people like me who keep the power on. I think I like it that way. Resumes these days need to be tailored to an analyst type role even if you like technical stuff though, I think.

ultimately, everyone works together to keep the power on

managers are nothing without workers

workers are nothing without managers

 

[Mide]

interesting, thanks all for the posts. I always enjoy the technical stuff, but the salary discrepancies in the companies I've worked for are way too extreme to not take notice. And it always sucks when you work with a manager who sucks but know that they get paid 20k+ more

 

[MrDudeMan]

ultimately, everyone works together to keep the power on

managers are nothing without workers

workers are nothing without managers

Obviously managers play a part in the whole scheme, but the people getting the actual work done are pulling a lot more weight. At my last job, there were literally months where my whole team didn't see our manager and we all got our work done on time. Meanwhile, he still got paid at least 20% more than everyone else. To this day, I have no idea what the fuck he was doing, but it wasn't an isolated event with respect to him or even the company. I know for sure if I disappeared for a month that my company would continue to run without any issues because my employees are doing the actual work. It's a little bit different in a small business, but in some ways it's actually the same.

I much prefer technical leadership where I still get to actually do things that matter. The difference is I earned my way to a higher level position where I can dump the annoying, tedious stuff on someone else so I can focus on the interesting parts of higher level problems. Compared to that, management is the fucking pits.

 

[GobBluth]

Been there. Done that. Hated it. Quit and went back to technical.

I just did this.. literally last month.

Was shop manager for 2 years. Hated every second of it.

Individual contributors for life! *high five*

 

[TXHokie]

Been there. Done that. Hated it. Quit and went back to technical.

I've seen several people went to management, get the big bump in salary scale, then went back to technical and get to keep the salary scale. Not a bad move.