
Ask HN: I'm a well compensated engineer that can't seem to break into management - freeme
For the last several years I&#x27;ve had a passion to lead a team, mentor, develop career paths, and problem solve but it seems no matter what company I work at I can&#x27;t break into management due to any number of factors: nepotism, lack of experience, role availability, lack of interest by management to move me out of a technical role.<p>Unfortunately it seems over the last few years, I&#x27;ve worked myself into some well compensated roles as an individual contributor where I&#x27;m significantly rewarded financially for my tech chops but not with added responsibilities or leadership experience.<p>I read management 101 books, I attend meet-ups, hell many people &amp; coworkers have told me that I would make a great manager but I feel stuck. I take ownership of projects and always follow through. I feel well utilized and I feel I&#x27;m delivering value but I also feel stagnant in the IC role.<p>It&#x27;s very frustrating that I can&#x27;t find the opportunities that I think will unlock who I want to be and excel in tech. I would like to develop a plan for the future but I just have no idea where to start.<p>Has anyone here struggled to climb the ladder? If so, what works?
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WheelsAtLarge
Start looking outside your company for a job. You will likely need to settle
for lower pay if you want to move to a management position. It's obvious that
your current bosses think that you can't manage a team.

Also just because you're excellent at your job it does not mean you will be an
excellent manager. Great managers don't need to be technical wizards but they
need to know how to evaluate people and be able to make the best decisions
from the information your team gives you. Managers are best at managing people
and making sure you get the best from the team and you're able to manage your
bosses too. Which means that if they ask you to acomplish X then you will
accoplish X plus more.

Techies believe that the best way to management is to show how great they know
their area of expertise. No, that won't get you into management. You need to
show that you can get people to do what you want, inspire them, and as you get
up the ladder you can manage a budget and all the other parts of a particular
department.

You will also notice that managers can be jerks but when they speak to a team
they come across as very charasmatic. It's a talent that can be learned. You
need to start learning it. So start by knowing your audience. Good luck!

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greenyoda
> It's obvious that your current bosses think that you can't manage a team.

That's not obvious at all to me. It's also possible that they think he's such
a good developer that he's more valuable to them as a developer than as a
manager.

> Techies believe that the best way to management is to show how great they
> know their area of expertise. No, that won't get you into management.

That's how I got into management: I was a good developer who showed a lot of
initiative in getting stuff done, and someone higher up noticed my work and
pushed me into a management position. Most of the technical management
positions in my company got filled that way. I'm not saying that this is the
ideal way to find managers, but it seems to be common, in my experience. (I'm
no longer a manager; I decided after several years that I was happier as a
developer.)

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nilkn
Management is a very high leverage activity, hiring good managers externally
is really hard (harder than hiring developers), and my experience as a manager
(and manager of managers) is most developers don't want to do it (your post is
an example of that!). So, if a developer is really enthusiastic about wanting
to take on a management role and is being turned down, I think there are three
reasonable conclusions: (1) there is no management position available; (2)
this person is a very senior developer (staff or higher); or (3) there's not
much confidence this person's skill set would transfer into managing a team
successfully. (1) doesn't seem to be the case here, and while I can't rule out
(2) there's also nothing in the OP's post that suggests he or she is in such a
high-level engineering position.

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jppope
You need management experience.

Hire some contractors/people to help you build something outside of work...
learn how to manage them (make sure it's more than one person). Even if its
silly stuff like building web pages for local businesses. The next interview
you take you will be able to speak about your experience managing a team.

Oh and change jobs. You're clearly putting the work in and they aren't seeing
it. That's a red flag for me. If you like the company you can land another gig
and then have them counter offer with a management position.

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downrightmike
You painted yourself into a corner. You could move on to a mgmt role somewhere
else, may help to have project mgmt certs. Or get a MBA, your situation is a
really good reason to do that. Or found your own thing. To get runway to do
these things, can you live off of every other pay check and save the rest?

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greenyoda
Instead of trying to get promoted into management from a developer job, have
you tried applying directly for management jobs?

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carapace
well-compensated

