Techy Vs Management

[Mailman]

Isn't it true...

You are right, it isnt true.

Mailman

[Francko]

There are also PM contract roles about though.

Quite a lot of them indeed.

Job Serve - keywords:
project and manager 2400 contracts
developer 3000 contracts

On average 1.25 project manager per developer. :-)

Guess you know the old joke:

"A Japanese company and an American company decided to have a canoe race on
the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak
performance before the race.
On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The Americans, very discouraged
and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.

A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and
recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had eight
people rowing and one person steering, while the American team had eight
people steering and one person rowing.

So American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large
amount of money for a second opinion. They advised that too many people were
steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

To prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management
structure was totally reorganized to four steering supervisors, three area
steering superintendents and one assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one
person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the
"Rowing Team Quality First Program", with meetings, dinners and free pens
for the rower.

There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment,
extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American
management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a
new canoe, sold the paddles and cancelled all capital investments for new
equipment.

The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses, and the
next year's racing team was outsourced to India. "

[oraclesmith]

If you're tulip - you're tulip, doesn't matter whether you're a contractor or not. The point I was making is that, as a contractor, if you're brought in to fulfil a technical contract and your technical skills are cack then you go, you don't end up moving to a management role...

Yeah. But that's the point ie. where do you go next if you can't get a tech role because you're 'cack' at it ? It's a reasonable assumption that a lot go into softer roles, probably permie ones if they can swing it.

I agree that people skills are becoming more important with techs becoming less protected from the business than they used to - probably because of lower staff numbers and less middle management. Also you need some people skills to get the contract in the first place.

[BillHicksRIP]

One of the reasons I quit IBM was because in order to get access to the stuff you were interested, in you had to climb their ladder, and to climb the ladder you had to take on managerial duties at each level. And they wonder why most real techies bail from them, then come back as contractors to support their own product line. Daft.

[Pondlife]

There are also PM contract roles about though.

[ratewhore]

Mmmm... recently seen lots of contractors sacked because of complete lack of people skills.

If you're tulip - you're tulip, doesn't matter whether you're a contractor or not. The point I was making is that, as a contractor, if you're brought in to fulfil a technical contract and your technical skills are cack then you go, you don't end up moving to a management role...

[Francko]

This is probably true in the permie world...

Mmmm... recently seen lots of contractors sacked because of complete lack of people skills.

[ratewhore]

Isn't it true that if you cant get on in the technical world and have an aptitude for it, you end up in management or project management. I've never known a PM to have an ounce of knowledge about what he's supposed to be managing (but thats ok as he has 'People Skills', WTF is that ? ) .

This is probably true in the permie world...

[oraclesmith]

I've known a lot of PM's who haven't got any tech skills whatsoever, in anything..... well except MS Project, Excel and Word but that doesn't count in my book. I've even known a successful PM who had no tech skills AND no people skills - he just relied on his obsessive attention to detail and liking for structure and paperwork to get him through. I have also known managers who have no tech skills, no people skills AND no organisational ability, but seem to hang on to their jobs by sheer deviousness.

Personally I've gone from tech to leadership/management, back to tech, business analysis, back to tech, then management, then business analysis, then project management, then management then back to tech ! The problem is that it's always tricky to convince other people that you still have the tech aptitude and ability to update yourself quickly when getting back into it. The idea of generic tech aptitude doesn't seem to be that well recognised, whereas people and organisational skills are more long lasting and transferable.

[Andyw]

Isn't it true that if you cant get on in the technical world and have an aptitude for it, you end up in management or project management. I've never known a PM to have an ounce of knowledge about what he's supposed to be managing (but thats ok as he has 'People Skills', WTF is that ? ) .