When it comes to career growth, changing positions, moving from a comfort zone where you know and can do everything to one where, for objective reasons, nothing may work out, many of us put off making such decisions in every possible way. Can a programmer grow to a manager and what are the alternatives? This question comes to mind for programmers who want to develop, not only by typing code on the keyboard.
There are many options for the development of events in the IT industry. If you want to develop, there are always several more or less popular vectors. A career is a multidimensional space and everyone chooses for themselves which axes to move along, and, in fact, they consider "career growth", especially considering that it is impossible to move in all directions at once. Examples of such axes in IT are income level, responsibility for the actions of other people, the implementation of complex systems, personal independence, working with people, and the like.
If it is important to move along the axis of solving complex technical problems, you can develop the skills of a software architect, if personal independence, then the programmer stops being an architect and goes freelance. Some testers, at the beginning of their career in IT, become a department head, someone opens their own company, someone starts programming in another language or in another field.
And, of course, a programmer can become a manager. We are talking about a team leader, project manager, department head, and the like. If we compare the positions of a manager and a programmer specifically, the key difference between them is that a programmer writes code, and a manager manages people. But not all those who write code well can be good managers, and most importantly, not everyone will like it.
Here is a list of key skills that, in my opinion, programmers who want to become managers should have:
- A good manager should be able to work with people. Programmers have the makings of a manager right away – they unite people around themselves, know how to show the benefits of working in a team, have a vision of the project and see its ultimate goal, and are ready to represent the interests of the group;
- Ability to see the big picture: a successful manager will be a programmer who has a holistic vision of the project, and is not limited to the code;
- Developed communication skills;
- Readiness to take responsibility and be responsible for the overall result;
- The advantage of a programmer who wants to become a manager is that he has technical experience, can find a common language with developers and understands the specifics of their work.
You need to understand the risks that a good programmer will not necessarily become a good manager. At the same time, in 2-3 years he will lose his qualifications and it will be extremely difficult to restore them. At the same time, it will be even more difficult for him to change jobs – a good programmer is welcome everywhere, and there are enough mediocre managers. At one time, Nokia got burned on this. It had only one way for "techies" to move up the career ladder and get more money - to become a manager. Naturally, people, striving for better salaries and career growth, became managers. This led to the fact that all engineers were middle managers, but their career growth in engineering stopped. Thus, the company stopped developing from a management point of view and failed in innovation. However, programmers who feel that they have the makings of management should not be afraid: if you don't try, you will never know. The scheme of transition to management is often perceived by programmers as irreversible. This problem can be solved by dividing it into "try it as part of a pilot project without a promotion" and "transition to management if the pilot project is successful." In this way, in a few months, skills and experience do not have time to become obsolete, but it is quite possible to try and test yourself in the position of a manager. The main thing to remember is that to become a good manager you need to work - this is titanic work on yourself, you need a completely different education, a radically different approach to people and to work.
When it comes to career growth, changing positions, moving from a comfort zone where you know and can do everything to one where, for objective reasons, nothing may work out, many of us put off making such decisions in every possible way. Can a programmer grow to a manager and what are the alternatives? This question comes to mind for programmers who want to develop, not only by typing code on the keyboard.
There are many options for the development of events in the IT industry. If you want to develop, there are always several more or less popular vectors. A career is a multidimensional space and everyone chooses for themselves which axes to move along, and, in fact, they consider "career growth", especially considering that it is impossible to move in all directions at once. Examples of such axes in IT are income level, responsibility for the actions of other people, the implementation of complex systems, personal independence, working with people, and the like.
If it is important to move along the axis of solving complex technical problems, you can develop the skills of a software architect, if personal independence, then the programmer stops being an architect and goes freelance. Some testers, at the beginning of their career in IT, become a department head, someone opens their own company, someone starts programming in another language or in another field.
And, of course, a programmer can become a manager. We are talking about a team leader, project manager, department head, and the like. If we compare the positions of a manager and a programmer specifically, the key difference between them is that a programmer writes code, and a manager manages people. But not all those who write code well can be good managers, and most importantly, not everyone will like it.
Here is a list of key skills that, in my opinion, programmers who want to become managers should have:
- A good manager should be able to work with people. Programmers have the makings of a manager right away – they unite people around themselves, know how to show the benefits of working in a team, have a vision of the project and see its ultimate goal, and are ready to represent the interests of the group;
- Ability to see the big picture: a successful manager will be a programmer who has a holistic vision of the project, and is not limited to the code;
- Developed communication skills;
- Readiness to take responsibility and be responsible for the overall result;
- The advantage of a programmer who wants to become a manager is that he has technical experience, can find a common language with developers and understands the specifics of their work.
You need to understand the risks that a good programmer will not necessarily become a good manager. At the same time, in 2-3 years he will lose his qualifications and it will be extremely difficult to restore them. At the same time, it will be even more difficult for him to change jobs – a good programmer is welcome everywhere, and there are enough mediocre managers. At one time, Nokia got burned on this. It had only one way for "techies" to move up the career ladder and get more money - to become a manager. Naturally, people, striving for better salaries and career growth, became managers. This led to the fact that all engineers were middle managers, but their career growth in engineering stopped. Thus, the company stopped developing from a management point of view and failed in innovation. However, programmers who feel that they have the makings of management should not be afraid: if you don't try, you will never know. The scheme of transition to management is often perceived by programmers as irreversible. This problem can be solved by dividing it into "try it as part of a pilot project without a promotion" and "transition to management if the pilot project is successful." In this way, in a few months, skills and experience do not have time to become obsolete, but it is quite possible to try and test yourself in the position of a manager. The main thing to remember is that to become a good manager you need to work - this is titanic work on yourself, you need a completely different education, a radically different approach to people and to work.
