
Ask HN: How to become an industry “teacher” when you're a self-taught “student”? - djellybeans
Something really spoke to me the other day. It was this question that I read elsewhere:<p><i>If I were to interview you today, would you talk to me about bits of code you were asked to write that you had to go through cycle after cycle of peer review to get merged, or would you talk to me about complex systems you&#x27;ve designed, including training more junior engineers about coding principles, design patterns and how to be more effective in their job?</i><p>As someone who isn&#x27;t quite expert level, but isn&#x27;t a junior either, I would definitely have used &quot;bits of code&quot; response much more than the &quot;training and leading others&quot; response. But is it a stigma to stay in an industry for very long and not become a leader for newer people at your company?<p>I&#x27;ve been programming professionally for 8 years. I am starting to wonder if I&#x27;m expected to do more high-level work, and take charge in leading others, or if it&#x27;s just impostor syndrome. Because sometimes I don&#x27;t feel like I&#x27;m taken seriously at job interviews. I want to know of I&#x27;m treating programming too much like a &quot;labor&quot; job rather than a profession.<p>Is it bad that, at 8 years, I have never managed or mentored people at 8 years of working? Even in retail jobs, I have never been in manager or supervisor roles.<p>But I know friends in other professions who have been managers for many years now.<p>Would it be excusable if I have never been mentored myself? I have always been self-taught due to the environments that I worked in.<p>Because there seems to be the pressure that if I&#x27;ve been working this much, that I&#x27;m expected to think and do things more on a high level. And teach junior developers the ropes. Heck, I wish I had someone that could have taught me the ropes, when I was a junior.<p>I don&#x27;t want to be the blind leading the blind. So how do I make the push and lead others?
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PaulHoule
You ask good questions and you are not alone.

Often in the Software field, people who are titled "Manager" often describe
their job as "protecting the technical team from the chaos upstairs." In some
cases the manager would not be able to pass a whiteboard interview for the
coding job. Compare that to a supermarket where the store manager might take a
few minutes to show a teenaged employee the right way to mop a really big
floor.

In the military there is the concept of a "Staff Sergeant" who is an enlisted
person who has gotten into a leadership position over time and brings
experience in soldiering to support and supplement the junior officer (fresh
out of school.)

Roles such as the one you seek exist and are necessary, but it is not a career
path that happens without a lot of effort on your part! Consider a role as a
tech evangelist.

Send me a PM!

