
Ask HN: Career path for developers - hunterjrj
Hi All,<p>I've been developing professionally for 10 years. Lately, I've had an itch. I'm starting to become anxious to move on to something other than full time coding, and I'm starting to think that I'd like to spend more time having "face-time" with people.<p>I'm not particularly interested in managing. I believe I'm inclined towards demonstrating, guiding, training, advising, etc. As part of a previous job, I was responsible for going on-site, gathering requirements and overseeing implementation of our product, which involved a lot of face to face discussions with new people. I miss the social aspects/challenges of that work.<p>My question is, have any of you made the transition from developer to a people-oriented role that didn't involve becoming a manager? If so, do you have any advice for a developer aspiring to do just that?<p>Thanks
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coglethorpe
Some of the best career advice I ever got was from a recruiter who had a PhD
in microbiology: "Don't lose your technical edge." I sensed that he regretted
stepping out of the lab into a sales/recruiting role. He's a great guy but had
to step out of recruiting and I met him again when he was working managing
contracts for a company I was working for.

So whatever you do, I'd recommend keeping your coding skills. You could do
that by starting your own software training company for example, maybe start a
site that teaches basic skills to people and couple it with live courses.
That's my 2 cents, anyway.

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interknot
The bit about the PhD in microbiology caught my eye here--to people getting
bored with "blub" programming: perhaps look into a field like bioinformatics,
meteorology, and so on. You'd be working on difficult, "technical" things, but
you'd be able to leverage your existing skills and simultaneously assist with
the (inevitable?) computational aspects of that particular research.

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scorpioxy
Your comment is certainly applicable to me. I am interested in bioinformatics,
but i have no idea how to get started in something like that.

What do you think?

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Femur
Have you considered consulting? By that i don't mean "charge hourly to do
development" but true consulting.

I worked for the technical consulting branch of one of the "Big Four"
accounting firms as an Oracle DBA for a few years and found that I used my
soft skills much more than my technical stuff. Most of the projects I was
brought in for where very troubled and usually had a political AND technical
problem. The usual method to solve these involved a lot of creativity to
implement the best technical solution given the political climate of our
clients. It can be very rewarding solving these kinds of issues.

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iron_ball
Obvious official HN response: do a startup, where your people skills will be
just as important as your technical chops, yet you will still take full
advantage of your years of experience.

My response: "management" is a fuzzy area. A product manager, for instance,
can be very different from a project manager -- and it would involve a lot of
what you're talking about.

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hunterjrj
I'm not interested in being a PHB. That is my aversion to management...

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mseebach
Then don't be a PHB. PHB is a stereotype and a caricature. Being a good leader
is all about people skills, and what you're looking for sounds a lot like what
a project manager could do. Note "could": once you step up to management, you
become the chief architect of your own job. If you project PHB on it, that
that's what you'll be.

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edw519
Interesting question. I don't think I've ever seen it here before.

I am a solo founder working on a startup that needs lots of hands-on hacking
now, but the plan is to evolve to the point where a much greater percentage of
the resources required will be for people with heavy technical backgrounds
doing more face to face stuff with customers.

Perhaps we should talk. Contact me off line please.

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wallflower
Consider volunteering your skills for a non-profit and getting into a
leadership role. I've done that (without the intention) but it is amazing how
involved you can get with the mission/issues of a non-profit organization
(where you _don't_ have any financial stake - e.g. salary). Yes, I primarily
help with technology analysis/implementation but they listen to me when it
comes to marketing (sometimes). Non-profits are interesting because they draw
positive-oriented individuals from a wide spectrum of careers. You can learn a
lot just by showing up and listening.

My managers recognize it officially as a potentially valuable career growth
action (on my own initiative). Not only has it helped me do better at my job,
it helps me feel better (diverts some workaholicsm towards something good)

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ScottWhigham
I've done a bit of the "technical liason for sales" and that can be
entertaining for a short time. You get to be in front of people - both
customers and colleagues - and you get input from both sides. With what you're
looking for, that might be a good fit. If you do opt for that, I'd want a cut
of commissions for any sales that I helped sell :)

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hunterjrj
Any idea if commissions are standard in roles like that?

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ploer
At least in my company's market, a 'sales engineer' role is definitely going
to be commisioned, and it seems like it meets the "demonstrating, guiding,
training, advising, etc." criteria.

Lots of oportunities to work with customers, lots of technical involvement,
and a strong position to influence product direction. It's also good
background if you think you might want to move into product management at some
point (or if you eventually get interested in engineering management, for that
matter).

But (again, probably depending on market), the travel demands can be pretty
significant, and you have to thrive within the culture and pressures of a
sales organization. Personally, I think I'd burn out on it pretty quickly.

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hboon
Being a sales engineer is usually commissioned and you get to do lots of
demonstrations and presentations, working with customers (read: more prospects
than paid customers). It is a very useful experience because you get to do
part of a sales job (selling, convincing people, handling disagreements,
presentations) as an engineer.

However a lot depends on the size of the company. If the company is fairly
large and established, you will hardly be able to influence product direction.
In fact, you will most likely be in the position where you might be able to
provide feedback to the product team, but you will almost never have the
chance to do any hands on improvement to the product. Obviously that is
because you are not part of product development/R&D, but believe me, that
feeling sucks if you are a good engineer.

If you have never done it before and the opportunity presents itself, jump at
it. I learnt tons when I was a sales engineer.

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cmars232
Find some big technical problem to solve that's bigger than yourself, and get
people involved. It'll all flow from there.

