
Ask HN: My manager says I have to figure out my career myself. Is he right? - meridianswitch
I am a team lead in a mid-sized startup.<p>Unfortunately, our company doesn&#x27;t have proper career advancement advice or plan for &quot;basic&quot; levels like Juniors, Mid-level devs, and Seniors. There are role definitions but no guidance on how to progress from one to another.<p>With the Team Lead role, it&#x27;s even worse. Nobody I asked around was able to tell me how one goes from a Team Lead to an Engineering Manager or an Architect (two possible roles &quot;above&quot; the team lead).<p>Now, I&#x27;ve been asking my Engineering Manager to give me at least some ideas about what I should be focusing on to learn skills necessary for the Engineering Manager role, but he can&#x27;t tell anything except that I should become &quot;visible&quot;. He says that if I were indeed ready for that role, I wouldn&#x27;t be asking about it in the first place. Because &quot;people at this level have to deal with a lot of uncertainty all the time,&quot; and asking for a specific career path is the demonstration of my inability to deal with uncertainty and take my career in my own hands.<p>This makes me feel doubt myself, but on the other hand, I see that other companies, especially those I consider to be successful, do have a clear career path beyond the Team Lead role.<p>Am I wrong for asking for something clear at this level? Should I indeed figure this out myself?
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2squirrels
I feel like that is the norm for small companies. It has certainly been my
experience albeit outside of any engineering or development roles so far. They
don’t have the resources (their own time, especially a start up, or money to
hire) to use on career planning like bigger companies do. Could he have given
you some more friendly advice? Probably. Is it his job to: no.

That being said if you don’t feel like your skills are being acknowledged,
you’re not learning new skills while on the job (unlikely in a start up but
possible) or that the leap to the next step seems to great at your current
job, you could just leave when you do feel ready and have learned enough,
seeking your next job at the next level above your current. In the interim try
to work with your engineering manager As much as possible to learn from them.

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nkb_
In my view: where you want to take your career is up to you. Your manager
should provide you with the guidance of how to get there.

Going into management is different than continuing on the IC path (at least in
most companies). As a principal or architect, your job is to find the
technical areas that should be explored (e.g. should Kubernetes be used, or
Rust or something else), what are the implications of these technologies as
well as how well they will solve the customer problems. Splitting the project
and working with the rest of the team to have a sound solution. As a manager
your job will be to deal with people and conflicts that arise due to various
misalignments. Motivating people, making sure projects get delivered, taking
responsibilities for things that you weren't aware were happening. Setting
direction and making sure everyone is informed on what is going on. These are
just the highlights, once you get into the position you get to see the
different nuances, e.g. how to talk with person A vs person B. Figuring out
what motivates them, what upsets them, what are they good at. Observing people
and providing them guidance on how to achieve their goals.

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justaguyhere
One piece of advice (more like a suggestion) that I can give, after working in
the industry for so many years - nobody cares about your career. I've worked
in 10+ places, all they cared about was getting max work done from me. I've
rarely had a conversation with my bosses about my career, my preferences etc
(though most of my managers have been good to work with).

I don't blame my managers/bosses - they are busy figuring out their own
careers, they just don't have the interest or time to help someone, unless it
directly and immediately benefits their own case.

I've seen this repeatedly - people advance their careers by doing one of the
two : first, they are loud and persistent in asking for more money, better
position etc and highlighting their work. Second, they jump jobs every 3 or so
years, getting better pay and title every time.

You might be the best at what you do, but nobody will care unless you _make
them_ care.

I wish someone had told my younger self about this.

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Pete-Codes
I learned the hard way that no-one is going to plan your career for you.

It's good you are being proactive. But unfortunately lots of companies aren't
clear about how to get promotions etc..is there someone in HR you can talk to?
Or the founders?

I would just make sure you're at your A game if you are looking for promotion
routes as well.

