Managing Your Technical Career o n a Sea of Analog Advice

1. Managing Your Technical Careeron a Sea of Analog Advice

2. Your Issues • How do you get promoted when managers are no-longer hands-on and they don't understand the complexity of technology? • How do you find the right balance of technical skills along with project management skills? • Is it “better” to remain an independent consultant, work for a consulting firm or look for another company? • Competing against younger, “smarter” newcomers and being able to get a foot in the door is a Catch-22 situation: Prior experience in a skill area is required but I can't get the initial job to gain that experience. What can I do? • How do you spot a job that you shouldn't take?

3. More of Your Issues • How do I work on exciting new technologies when my company is not keeping their stack fresh? • How do I transition from a consulting or company IT role into an engineering leadership role at the same level? • How do I summarize my many years of experience with many different technologies into a great resume? • How do I position an “old school but new cool” developer - almost 40 years old – in the job market? Is relevancy passing me by because of my age?

4. Even More of Your Issues • How do you manage relationships with colleagues who don't understand the concerns of good software development and management practices? • Does creating a technical career require you to trade-off personal and professional growth? What situations would transcend this? • Do the race and gender demographics within the technology sector impact the creation of sustaining mentor relationships?

5. My Thoughts • Give me commitment to a lifetime of self improvement and professional passionate over perfection • Technical experts are usually shielded during downturns and rewarded during up-cycles • If you’re not a tech expert, consider another area • Technical skills can be trained; critical thinking and analysis skills are much tougher to develop

6. More of My Thoughts • Once in “management” very few I’ve ever known would say that they would prefer to go back to a technical career • 10-15 years in a highly technical role is recommended before switching to management • How can you go “there” is you don’t know where “there” is or how to get “there”?

7. Common HR Maxim “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will believe that it is stupid” …or how HR teaches most managers to assess the performance and potential of their team. (Side Topic: Are Managers of technical people technical enough to assess the skills of the technical people?)

8. What Can You Do When… • You realize that you’re not as technical as you thought you were and to close the gap really makes you nauseous? • You realize that in your team of quasi-dysfunctional developers you’re by far the most organized – perhaps even OCD like - even if you truly prefer the technical elements of your job? • You realize that you’ve been attending far too many Alt .NET and related Meetups and hackathons and are ignoring the other people (or pets) in your life? • You’re fast approaching 30 and saying “Dude” is actually beginning to sound funny?

9. Unscientific Self Test • Have you learned something new during the past 30 days? • Do you volunteer on some committee? • Have you been working on the same stuff over the past 3 years? • Would you rank any of the people where you work as some of the best in the industry? • Have you met at least 2 people over the past 30 days who made you think, “Wow!”? • Have you been contacted by a non-recruiter during the past 6 months about a potential job?

10. Be a Better… • Developer: http://www.sans.org/top25-software-errors/ • Thinker: Expand interests outside of technology • Leader: Manage tough situations • Communicator: Write and Speak • Builder: Create a Community • Owner: Manage your career

11. Be a PEST: Tracking the Globe • Political • Economic • Social • Technological

12. What will it take…? • For me to actually earn more money? • For me to move to another group? • For me to move up to the next title level? • For me to me to become a manager? • For me to become the head of software development? • For me to become the CTO? • For me to move over to product development? • For me to be recognized as a (vomiting in my mouth as I type these) Ninja, Guru, Samurai or Expert?

13. Eventually… • You might want to “graduate” from writing code to solving a larger business problem – one that is closer to the revenue stream… • You might recognize how much you truly dislike being managed by someone whom you believe to be less technically proficient than you…

14. Then again… • You can become especially great at solving technical problems then become a contractor…and earn CTO money (and likely have little time to spend it) • This means that you’ll have to continue to broaden your skills base to be viewed as an “edge changer”

15. What happens when…?

16. Talent Facts • Don’t knock management until you’ve tried it for at least 2 performance cycles • Rotate jobs to develop breadth that can be used for both your technical and leadership voices • I like to recruit people who offer many different types of work environments – these can be internal and/or external • Develop your leadership skills away from work • Do what you love – even if it makes you lose your hair (makes for great blog fodder) • In real life you aren’t given Blue Ribbons for an 8th place finish – be the best and try to finish first…

17. Career Management Tools • LinkedIn profile (SEO focused) • Code repo (GitHub, StackOverflow) • Success journal • Blog • 2-3 meetings per month • Accept 1 volunteer leadership role annually • Attend 2 conferences annually (Exhibitors Hall at Javits) • Participate in 1 Hackathon annually • Look at computer science research at Universities

18. Be a Savvy Career Shopper • Reach out to folks who’ve left (“Previous” job on LinkedIn profile) - find out why • Ask for specific examples of career pathing for technical employees • Ask “how would you react to me (doing something)” • Things not to do? Rely solely on Glassdoor • People most often leave the supervisor because of behaviors they wish they had known • Google two-year old or three-year old press releases on projects/strategic alliances, then do some follow-up research – did it end up going anywhere?

19. More Savvy Career Shopping • If you find red flags, raise them during the interview, and pay attention to both the words and body language when the interviewers are responding • Hiring Managers often ask candidates about their best and worst boss to gain insights into what motivates and demotivates them — Flip it: Ask a similar question of the Hiring Manager (re: best/worst employees) • Read software reviews for good/bad product features; follow company’s social media feeds to see how they respond to customer and developer requests

20. My Thoughts • Give me commitment to a lifetime of self improvement and professional passionate over perfection • Technical experts are usually shielded during downturns and rewarded during up-cycles • If you’re not a tech expert, consider another area • Technical skills can be trained; critical thinking and analysis skills are much tougher to develop • Once in “management” very few I’ve ever known would say that they would prefer to go back to a technical career • 10-15 years in a highly technical role is recommended before switching to management • How can you go “there” if you don’t know where “there” is or how to get “there”?

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