Career aspirations

I've switched company with the view that I will accelerate faster than in my previous but the only real way to get to scary levels of seniority would be to drop out of vendor work to join a relatively small partner, or even start my own. For now, I have a 2 year old and another on the way so I am comfortable trying to climb the career ladder where I am, maybe when the time is right it'll time to get off PAYE and into running my own place.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
A younger me would have said yes, but post covid me no.
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Probably the other way round for me, when I was younger the idea of senior management, level of responsibility, dealing with lots of problems etc used to scare me (of course it still does to some extent) but over time I came to realise that being in a senior manager (hopefully) empowers you to influence and address some of the problems rather than simply coming along for the ride as you do in middle management / 'worker bee' roles.

In some ways middle-management is kind of the worst of both worlds, you get only a modest remuneration improvement over 'worker bee' yet have to deal with a lot more stress, meanwhile your hands are tied on a lot of things so you have to relay and be seen to get behind messages/decisions you don't fully agree with. I remember when I used to manage a team thinking what a comparatively easy life some of my team had, e.g. contractors earning significantly more with a fraction of the responsibility. Or even comparing with perms, bonus structure a bit better but not massively, higher salary but again due to marginal tax rates not MASSIVELY better.
In terms of money:stress levels probably the best ratio was when I was a contractor working for a consultancy, kind of crazy really when you compare the narrow focus of a role like that with how massive some management jobs are. I got paid more in a month than I did in a year in my first (more stressful) job after uni.

Obviously once you start getting to board level there's a much better spectrum of remuneration options with stock options etc plus you have more influence to take decisions rather than enforce them.

That's not to say I picture myself as a CEO or similar though.
 
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I used to be totally driven by title and then having busted my ass to do as much as possible to chase that *****, I realised that my gravestone isn't going to have on it "Ross Jones - CEO of some company" or anything to do with my title. No one is going to stand up when I'm dead and talk about my job. They will talk about the things I do though and who I am. So I readjusted my drive and motivation towards my current aims: Get paid to do what I love, be fulfilled and afford myself the time to enjoy the present and future.

Which may take me all over, may be a bit of this and a bit of that but I love the process and doing all sorts of things. More than I ever enjoyed the corporate world of total *******. Now I just need to try and balance the salary / income side of one to match the other... by 40 I will have that. That's my manifestation.
 
I’m founder and MD of a small company, currently under 10 members of staff(at most I’ve had 14) and frankly, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone unless you have an absolute desire to be your own boss and get company ownership out of your system.

After 7 years I’m currently looking to get out and re-enter the job market at a mid-senior level because post-covid its frankly impossible to hire locally for sensible rates and customers are moving to lower cost solutions all the time. Its been a struggle.

Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely, I love being my own boss, I love the challenges, I love using my initiative.. which sounds strange but when you’re in this position you’re forced to think on your feet and make decisions no matter how challenging the problem is.

Saying that, in the current climate, things are tough and I need to adapt which means getting out of my current predicament, re-evaluating and seeing what the future holds. My staff will be better off working for larger corporates and I’ll make a sensible living rather than scraping by.

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Would I be the CEO of a large corporate? Yes. I’m of the opinion that there’s a difference between being a founder/owner and being what’s essentially a senior level manager, the framework is established, there’s a team and pipeline in place, I would welcome the challenge.
 
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Freefaller said:
I was chatting with some friends talking about career aspirations. One of them asked me, would you ever want to be a CEO?
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Probably happy being a Chairman/COO/CIO however a CEO is really like large product management.. same stakeholders wanting ROI, you wanting investment and all the usual problems internally and externally.. all with the remit of letting people do their jobs and too much going on to get involved in all the interesting bits as you have todo all the dull and bad bits too.
 
shifty_uk said:
I’m founder and MD of a small company, currently under 10 members of staff(at most I’ve had 14) and frankly, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone unless you have an absolute desire to be your own boss and get company ownership out of your system.

After 7 years I’m currently looking to get out and re-enter the job market at a mid-senior level because post-covid its frankly impossible to hire locally for sensible rates and customers are moving to lower cost solutions all the time. Its been a struggle.

Would I do it again? Yes, absolutely, I love being my own boss, I love the challenges, I love using my initiative.. which sounds strange but when you’re in this position you’re forced to think on your feet and make decisions no matter how challenging the problem is.

Saying that, in the current climate, things are tough and I need to adapt which means getting out of my current predicament, re-evaluating and seeing what the future holds. My staff will be better off working for larger corporates and I’ll make a sensible living rather than scraping by.

Edit:
Would I be the CEO of a large corporate? Yes. I’m of the opinion that there’s a difference between being a founder/owner and being what’s essentially a senior level manager, the framework is established, there’s a team and pipeline in place, I would welcome the challenge.
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Sounds like a company partner is a good fit for you - keep what you kill.. but in a larger environment.
 
CEOs can have vastly different responsibilities and objectives.

E.g. it's very different to take a small growing company and help them develop, compared to the CEO of a huge company who's trying to sustain YoY growth.


I would be happy to do the former, but the latter doesn't interest me - everything becomes about politics/multi year strategy. It's the reason we get small increments.
 
NickK said:
Sounds like a company partner is a good fit for you - keep what you kill.. but in a larger environment.
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That would be nice. My biggest regret is not aligning with a partner who had complimentary skills when I started.

Getting in the door will be a challenge for me now but something will come up.
 
CEO is unrealistic (due to various reasons), even if I wanted to be, which I don't. I made MD this year, and run a large team of people looking after some critical trading systems, I report to the CTO and COO - that's more than enough for me (I'm not particularly enjoying the extra work and pressure, but I am particularly enjoying the pay).

Someone who works for me is super-ambitious, and is always after the next job title - but when it gets to MD level and higher it's hard because there is no specific set of criteria to meet in order to secure a promotion. It's about your track record and reputation within the department and company, etc - rather than "delivered 2 projects" or "spoke at 2 tech conferences"... and CEO is a step up from that. Imagine the literal future of your company being in your hands every time you appear on Bloomberg TV? No thanks.
 
I have to say I feel the same. The extra pressure and responsibility (regardless of the pay) is something I've realised I'm less interested in. I've come to the conclusion that my next step will definitely be a side step or even a step down in perhaps a larger company to enjoy the work more than the effective "admin" that comes with leadership. Don't get me wrong I seem to be a natural people person and I enjoy that side of things, but all the extra bits that lie on top of that is quite draining.

I'd happily take a side/down step for a little less pressure (certainly if financially it wasn't crippling - I'd be happy to take a pay cut if necessary).
 
It depends on the specific role really. There is no standard CEO job description, lots of dependencies that determine how you operate, your limitations, influence levels etc. As we have seen across tech get a few investors who group together and you can have a horrible ride, even when you started and built the business. CEO in a global business no, not for me, smaller business maybe but for me NED roles are the most likely journey to retirement.
 
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That's why I'm getting myself geared up for more NED positions and networks as I feel that would be a good way to keep my mind active whilst also keeping interested in some sectors that I can have an impact in.
 
I think I probably hit a career plateau - I've been made redundant a number of times and at my age it takes time to get back into work (covid didn't help), a CTPO contract for 6m has been good to get back into the swing but it felt a little under powered (numerous org reasons) so next step is product management at a group company that owns some rather large airlines. Should prove both fun and keep the brain going.

I've rattled around being the commercially astute techie for a number of years - sorting out problems in companies as nobody else would do it (only to be made redundant as the jobs went east). I learnt and grew so much by simply saying yes. I'd probably say yes being a COO or CTO, probably a CEO at a push but only in the instance that the CEO snuffed it and only until the board agreed a replacement!

I agree - CEO and to an extent the majority of the board don't have a specific tickbox. They're expected to understand each others roles and how they need to collaborate as a team. A contract CEO will be charged with a specific task but a normal CEO tends to be company success.

The further up the organisation the more the role becomes sorting out someone else's problem to facilitate their success. Even in blue sky the direction is 1% of the effort you put in.
 
I think something that I often need to rewire myself with is at board level you want above all else to believe in your company, and want it to succeed with all your heart / mind, but without being a dick about it. If you don't have that passion it'll never happen and you end up just focusing on numbers rather than the core values of the business. Stability sometimes is better than pure growth IMO - if you have a good pipeline of work/projects/framework agreements/etc... and you have good natural turnover of staff (i.e. people retiring or leaving because of reasons that have nothing to do with the culture of the business) then I think that's the "golden ticket".

IF you're able to get enough change/innovation and excitement within a business without needing to do mergers or overly ambitious growth it creates stability and interest to your employees especially if they get well rewarded for their work, recognised and intellectually and professionally challenged.

Such companies do exist but they're rare - I mean when I was at Crossrail (the construction project not the **** up in systems integration) that was probably me at my happiest, we had a common goal/purpose and everyone was collaborating and working to a good drumbeat. Our work was finished on time and on budget and we all felt this sense of communal pride.

If I were a board member (not a NED) for a stable, exciting but ambitious (without unrealistic dreams) business of medium sort of size, I think that would be spot on for me. I'm more of a leader than a manager, I'm good at building teams and making things come together.
 
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