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Is there a career path for moving from a 'Technical Lead' position to a more management-focussed role, such as that of a project manager? Are there any skill-sets common to both that can be leveraged? Is a developer with experience as a technical lead any closer to becoming a project manager than a developer without that experience? |
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Technical experience is useful in any kind of management, assuming you are managing what you were doing. Unfortunately you rapidly lose that technical edge and eventually turn into the guy who talks about stuff which was out of date five years ago. You know the guy and you don't want to be me ... I mean him. Alternatively you find that you can't let go of the technical stuff which is distracting at best. The people that you are managing want you to become good at the management stuff and protect them from that. If you stick too close to the technical side, you risk annoying your team by making an ever weaker technical contribution and annoying your management by not managing. That means that technical knowledge is only a short term help which compensates for lack of management experience for a while. If you want to do it and you think you can be good at it, go for it. If you aren't sure, keep away from it because you wont like it. |
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Generally "Project Managers" at the companies I've worked at are not technical, they often deal with the engineering project leader for that, while they handle more managerial tasks. I'm not sure, but I'd think to be hired as a project manager you would need significant experience, moderate experience within the same company, or some sort of expensive paper. |
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Management likes to promote people to management who are like themselves, i.e. think and act like themselves. (This is part of the human condition. It's easier to get a Ph.D. if you think and act like an academic than like a fireman.) So, if you want to jump from wherever you are toward management, make yourself look like management which means looking at the big picture, be good at budget and personnel matters, and be concerned with having the company earn some money. Learn how to summarize technical detail for management consumption. If you are part of a big and well-run corporation, go to HR and tell them it's your goal. Be willing to move your family to some small and distant subsidiary for a few years. |
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I highly recommend finding a copy of "Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach" by Gerald Weinberg. |
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I feel ya! I don't think there is certain "path" to move from Tech lead to Manager. If the opportunity shows up, jump on it. Or go find that opportunity where a company is ready to make you a manager. Or go tell your CIO/VP about your ideas to help products or teams, if you have any. Look for Tech Advisor/Mentor kind of roles where you can move away from project-by-project role and impact at Organization level. I have seen managers who do ONLY "people" management - they ask repeated questions like "What is the ETA? Don't give me tech talk...tell me when you'll finish. Can you put all these features in one Java class? what will I do if you get hit by a bus?" and other stupid stuff. That's where your skill-set comes into play. Find an opportunity where you can leverage your tech skills, understand what the team is doing and help them manage those technical risks. Follow commonsense people management ideas: Be nice and don't be a prick, share info, joke around, etc. If you like to get few pointers about this, please read "Managing Humans" by Michael Lopp http://www.managinghumans.com/ and his blog http://www.randsinrepose.com/ |
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