Re:Tips for moving into management [audio]
by scarface74 on Monday January 15, 2018 @09:39AM
(#16150738)
I felt the same way up until a year ago.
I'm in my 40s, been developing for over 20 years professionally and was programming in assembly since the late 80s in middle school and felt the same way.
I kind of stumbled into a job as a lead. I was looking for a job, thought I was applying for just another senior developer job and I started asking my version of the Joel Test * to my now manager. I realized after a lot of questions about architecture, strategy, and mentoring that he was looking for someone to basically create a modern development shop. Luckily I knew enough to talk intelligently about it to make it through the interview without planning.
It's been a great but humbling experience. The great part is that I'm only working on green field projects and I don't have to deal with the technical decisions by others. I was able to mold the department in my own image - I'm always reading about best practices and asking advice from former coworkers.
The humbling part is that I realized two things, I'm good at teaching and working with the smart developers who had been there for awhile working on a legacy system that were just learning newer technologies, but I sucked at figuring out the types of people when I was hiring that were "smart and gets things done"
I was even worse when it comes to the project management side of things. Luckily, the developers who had been there for awhile were self managing and knew the business process inside and out.
Alan Kay said that people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware. I feel the same way about becoming an architect or team lead. If you really want to be a good developer, you should really be a team lead. As a team lead, you have more leverage than as an individual developer.
I'm in my 40s, been developing for over 20 years professionally and was programming in assembly since the late 80s in middle school and felt the same way.
I kind of stumbled into a job as a lead. I was looking for a job, thought I was applying for just another senior developer job and I started asking my version of the Joel Test * to my now manager. I realized after a lot of questions about architecture, strategy, and mentoring that he was looking for someone to basically create a modern development shop. Luckily I knew enough to talk intelligently about it to make it through the interview without planning.
It's been a great but humbling experience. The great part is that I'm only working on green field projects and I don't have to deal with the technical decisions by others. I was able to mold the department in my own image - I'm always reading about best practices and asking advice from former coworkers.
The humbling part is that I realized two things, I'm good at teaching and working with the smart developers who had been there for awhile working on a legacy system that were just learning newer technologies, but I sucked at figuring out the types of people when I was hiring that were "smart and gets things done"
I was even worse when it comes to the project management side of things. Luckily, the developers who had been there for awhile were self managing and knew the business process inside and out.
Alan Kay said that people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware. I feel the same way about becoming an architect or team lead. If you really want to be a good developer, you should really be a team lead. As a team lead, you have more leverage than as an individual developer.
* https://myers.io/2017/04/04/the-joel-test-for-2017/
* * https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/10/25/the-guerrilla-guid...