Moving into Management

[LiE]

I'm looking for a bit of insight from people who have moved into management. I've been doing technical work now for 14 years and always steered away from management roles purely because I really enjoyed what I do. I have the opportunity to become the manager of the team I work in as my boss is changing roles but I am hesitant. Has anyone moved into management who wasn't sure about it and how did it turn out?

If I turn this down I would still need to move roles in the next 18 months into more of an SA type position. This is because I am already at the top of my team with no where else to go except manager or move to a different department.

Part of me feels that a manager position is more "generic" and I'd be better off staying highly skilled within my niche development role.

 

[LiE]

What really matters is do you enjoy doing it? That will depend a lot on the organisation you're in mind.

I've never really had the desire to be a manager to be honest.

When it comes to 'generic' it is partially down to you what you make of the position, unless it is being heavily constrained by senior management. My position wasn't really generic, I was still regarded as an SME and key person to provide direction on my subject matter on large programmes etc.

I would have no scope to be technical in this role, the team is 11 people and we have over 30 customers.

Have you had a chance to do any reasonably long-ish interim management cover?

I've covered for 5 weeks previous but I was still doing my day job and just dealing with critical things from a management perspective.

Do you still enjoy the tech or are you bored of pushing the buttons and want to take a step back? There are lots of options mate, doesn’t have to mean a move into management. I did it a little earlier in my career and hated it, I found it boring and moved back into the tech side as soon as I could. Like you say, the next step up really if you don’t want to do management is move into architecture. Which could also mean one of a few things depending on the company and how hands on you want to be.

I still enjoy the technical work, but my excitement to keep up with the constant versions and processes isn't what it used to be. Prior to COVID I did speak to the head of UK delivery about moving into his practice and he was happy to have me. It would be more of an SA/Principle Consultant position.

 

[LiE]

Even if not technical, it doesn't necessarily have to be generic. As for the team size, are those 11 people all going to be direct reports or is there a hierarchy in place, are some contractors etc? My team was bigger than that, but as we brought more perms on board I implemented a hierarchy given once you start getting more than about half a dozen direct reports it is difficult to do it justice.

There's no hierarchy in place. The 6 team members from the polish office I do believe report to a local manager for some things.

I had almost the exact situation as HangTime. Senior member within the team and an opportunity to move into managing the team arose. I was unsure at the time as I didn't want to lose the technical aspect, so the role was offered at 50/50 hands on/management. As expected, management swallowed way more than 50% of the time. And this was with a team and domain I knew, so I learnt that's it's definitely a tech role OR management role in my area.

In the end I dropped back to senior and have since moved on to other companies at a senior tech level. The opportunity to move to a management cropped up again in my current place and I was basically offered it on a plate, but I turned it down.

Maybe I'd rethink in another 10 years or so, but for now I definitely prefer the hands on side without the stress of managing others, even if the pay isn't quite as good.

Before my current manager came along I was offered the position and I turned it down to stay technical. The pay is very good, at least in my position, I get the sense than my manager isn't on much more than me.

Sometimes in IT the pay for managers isn't much more (in some cases less) than the senior techies anyway.

Yea when I looked at going into delivery practice before COVID I was told that they could easily bump me from £65k to £75k. I'm now on £68k and looking at the manager type jobs in the market place that salary exceeds a lot of them.

Been there, got the t-shirt, went "back" to technical in a new role with significant pay rise. I find it very hard to be motivated to manage people and projects. Boring. Stressful. Felt like nothing was ever delivered. Constantly trying to motivate others to do work. Having to lead boring cringe fest meetings. All the objective/performance related stuff. Taking responsibility for the team that you probably didn't pick, and has rotten apples in...

I find it very old fashioned that people still typically pay more for managers than some technical roles. A lot of the contracted PMs I worked with were utterly useless but had day rates of 1k. Then you get techs that constantly keep themselves up to date with a multitude of tools and languages and exams, and some companies want to pay them half the rate of their manager who has no skills but "knows the business" and people and has been there years. Trouble with that is try getting a brand new management job... Not always easy.

My boss is no doubt paid more than me by a fair bit. Great guy but...he's easily replaceable with anyone really that can do basic management and objectives/appraisal guff and attend meetings, after meeting, after meeting and likes the sound of their own voice. I find it Mickey mouse stuff and totally uninspiring.

I don't think my manager is on much more than me, if at all. The market place is very competitive for people trained in the area I work. Managers I'm sure they could find plenty of those. This is the big reason why I don't think this makes sense.

I've pretty much decided to turn it down. I may compromise and help the transition but I would have to move into the delivery practice in the next 18 months for sure.

 

[LiE]

I see a lot of people mention technical based manager roles, this one I've been offered isn't technical. The team I work in at the moment is support, we do traditional break/fix work but also dev work. I do mini projects for our support customers, the more technical and challenging work. I am essentially a consultant within the support practice. The manager of support, his job is to allocate work, meetings with our many customers, bid reviews, escalations, etc. There is no technical aspect to the role. I don't think it's a good fit for me, I certainly don't want to give up all my technical/consultancy work to do noddy power points for senior managers and customers.

The software I work in is in high demand, all the big consultancy firms are always recruiting. Doesn't make sense to go into a generic manager role when I have no ambitious to do so.

I have spoken to my manager and explained my thoughts and he totally gets it. He will be speaking to the head of delivery about my desire to move at some point in the next 12-18 months. Does mean I'll have to pull my finger out and get this 4 month long training for Technical Architect done though

 

[LiE]

Sounds like you've made the right call

Would you ever consider leaving to another place for a more technical management / consultancy role?

Work/life balance is extremely important to me, which is one of the reasons I moved from consultancy into support many years ago. My current employer is really good with work/life balance and I've never had any issues with them. For me moving doesn't really make sense unless I was motivated by money. Quite a few people have become contractors on £550-600 day rate, but I've never been interested.

Been with this employer for 14 years now which says a lot.

 

[LiE]

To be honest mate, if changing roles is off the cards (I was going to suggest moving into a dedicated consultancy role to get the best of both worlds) and you’ve been there 14 years, we’re not going to convince you of anything here. You’re on good money money for a support role (astounding tbh but those increases over 14 years add up), I think you already know in your head what you want to do.

I will likely be moving into consultancy (the delivery team) in the next 12-18 months. I'm already doing the job but from within support, which is a bit unique but one of the reasons why I'm paid well. I am working exclusively for 1 customer at the moment who only wants to work with me but as soon as that comes to an end I've got to move anyway as I'm no longer a fit for the role of support.

Yeah that's totally fair. I still have a bit of fight left in me so I'm still pushing for larger Salaries but I do want to wind down to a better work/life balance (hard when you're used to a certain amount of income). You know what it's like as a family man it's nice to spend time with the kids which is why weekends are so precious.

Yea I love having flexibility and support from my current employer with work/life balance. It may take a small hit when I move into projects but still very manageable. With the Mrs having her own business that should also remove even more need for me to push for bigger salaries.