This document provides advice for managing a technical career and addresses common issues faced by technical professionals. It discusses challenges such as getting promoted without managerial support, balancing technical and leadership skills, and staying relevant with new technologies. The document offers tips for areas like developing a strong resume, managing relationships, and tracking career progress. Readers are given questions to reflect on their skills, interests, and professional goals to help guide their career trajectories.

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Managing Your Technical Career
on a Sea of Analog Advice
Alt .NET
November 2012

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Your Issues
 How do you get promoted when managers are no-longer
hands-on and they don't understand the complexity of
technology?
 How do you find the right balance of technical skills along with
project management skills?
 Is it “better” to remain an independent consultant, work for a
consulting firm or look for another company?
 Competing against younger, “smarter” newcomers and being
able to get a foot in the door is a Catch-22 situation: Prior
experience in a skill area is required but I can't get the initial job
to gain that experience. What can I do?
 How do you spot a job that you shouldn't take?

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More of Your Issues
 How do I work on exciting new technologies when my company
is not keeping their stack fresh?
 How do I transition from a consulting or company IT role into an
engineering leadership role at the same level?
 How do I summarize my many years of experience with many
different technologies into a great resume?
 How do I position myself as an “old school but new cool”
developer - almost 40 years old – in the job market? Is
relevancy passing me by because of my age?

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Even More of Your Issues
 How do you manage relationships with colleagues who don't
understand the concerns of good software development and
management practices?
 Does creating a technical career require you to trade-off
personal and professional growth? What situations would
transcend this?
 Do the race and gender demographics within the technology
sector impact the creation of sustaining mentor relationships?

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My Thoughts
 Give me commitment to a lifetime of self improvement and
professional passionate over perfection
 Technical experts are usually shielded during downturns and
rewarded during up-cycles
 If you’re not a tech expert, consider adding another area to
your repertoire
 Technical skills can be trained; critical thinking and analysis
skills are much tougher to develop

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More of My Thoughts
 Once in “management” very few I’ve ever known would say that
they would prefer to go back to a technical career
 Spend 10-15 years in a highly technical role before switching to
management – sadly many companies use management as a
“raise” carrot
 How can you go “there” is you don’t know where “there” is or
how to get “there”?

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Common HR Maxim
“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will believe
that it is stupid”
…or how HR teaches most managers to assess the performance
and potential of their team
Side Topic: Do managers of technical people remain technical
enough to assess the skills of the technical people?

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What Can You Do When…
 You realize that you’re not as technical as you thought you
were and to close the gap really makes you nauseous?
 You realize that in your team of quasi-dysfunctional developers
you’re by far the most organized – perhaps even OCD like -
even if you truly prefer the technical elements of your job?
 You realize that you’ve been attending far too many Alt .NET
and related Meetups and hackathons and are ignoring the
other people (or pets) in your life?
 You’re fast approaching 30 and saying “Dude” is actually
beginning to sound funny?

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Unscientific Self Test
 Have you learned something new during the past 30 days?
 Do you volunteer on some committee?
 Have you been working on the same stuff over the past 3
years?
 Would you rank any of the people where you work as some of
the best in the industry?
 Have you met at least 2 people over the past 30 days who
made you think, “Wow!”?
 Have you been contacted by a non-recruiter during the past 6
months about a potential job?

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Be a Better…
 Developer: http://www.sans.org/top25-software-errors/
 Thinker: Expand interests outside of technology
 Leader: Manage tough situations
 Communicator: Write and Speak
 Builder: Create a Community
 Owner: Manage your career

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Be a PEST: Tracking the Globe
Keep your eye on the changing landscape areas other than
technology; these always impact career landscapes
 Political (e.g., changing party policies)
 Economic (e.g., global debt)
 Social (e.g., class movement)
 Technological (e.g., new collaboration tools)

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What will it take…?
 For you to actually earn more money?
 For you to move to another group?
 For you to move up to the next title level?
 For you to become a manager?
 For you to become the head of software development?
 For you to become the CTO?
 For you to move over to product development?
 For you to be recognized as a (vomiting in my mouth as I type
these) Ninja, Guru, Samurai or Expert?

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Eventually…
 You might want to “graduate” from writing code to solving a
larger business problem – one that is closer to the revenue
stream…
 You might recognize how much you truly dislike being
managed by someone whom you believe to be less technically
proficient than you…

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Then again…
 You can become especially great at solving technical problems
then become a contractor…and earn CTO money (and likely
have little time to spend it)
 This means that you’ll have to continue to broaden your skills
base to be viewed as an “edge changer” – and become more
involved in marketing your abilities

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What happens when…?

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Talent Facts
 Don’t knock management until you’ve tried it for at least 2
performance cycles
 Rotate jobs to develop breadth that can be used for both your
technical and leadership voices
 I like to recruit people (many recruiters don’t) who offer many
different types of work environments – these can be internal
and/or external
 Develop your leadership skills away from work
 Do what you love – even if it makes you lose your hair (makes
for great blog fodder)
 In real life you aren’t given Blue Ribbons for an 8th place finish
– be the best and try to finish first…

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Career Management Tools
 LinkedIn profile (SEO focused)
 Code repo (e.g., GitHub, StackOverflow) – with collaboration
 Success journal
 Blog
 2-3 meetings per month
 Accept 1 volunteer leadership role annually
 Attend 2 conferences annually (Exhibitors Hall at Javits)
 Participate in 1 Hackathon annually
 Look at computer science research at Universities

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Be a Savvy Career Shopper
 Reach out to folks who’ve left (“Previous” job on LinkedIn
profile) - find out why
 Ask for specific examples of career-pathing for technical
employees
 Ask “how would you react to me (doing something)”
 People most often leave the supervisor because of behaviors
they wish they had known
 Google two-year old or three-year old press releases on
projects/strategic alliances, then do some follow-up research –
did it end up going anywhere?
 Things not to do? Rely solely on Glassdoor

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More Savvy Career Shopping
 If you find red flags, raise them during the interview, and pay
attention to both the words and body language when the
interviewers are responding
 Hiring Managers often ask candidates about their best and
worst boss to gain insights into what motivates and
demotivates them — Flip it: Ask a similar question of the Hiring
Manager (re: best/worst employees)
 Read software reviews for good/bad product features; follow
company’s social media feeds to see how they respond to
customer and developer requests

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Questions for Me