Reply to: Moving from the tech side to the business side

[PurpleGorilla]

How about a blue one....?

Not bad, but I was thinking more like this;

[greenlake]

I want to be the guy who turns up in the white Porsche who blinds people with his brilliance.

How about a blue one....?

[MrMarkyMark]

I want to be the guy who turns up in the white Porsche who everyone thinks is a total feckin, arrogant, twunt .

Been everything from Principle Consultant, BI Architect, Technical Lead, I'll be anything they want me to be as long as the moneys right.

A proper corporate whore

[DieScum]

Surely the holy grail is 'consultant'.

Waft in on a huge rate.

A blend of tech and project experience.

Show the dark arts to the techs, and spell bind the mgt.

I don't want to be a tech monkey or a middle manager.

I want to be the guy who turns up in the white Porsche who blinds people with his brilliance.

I dunno. That's just being a contract solution architect/dev lead, etc.

Think you're better off out of it altogether. The projects that rely on a hero are very, very bad projects.

You either die a hero (but they'll spit on your grave if they see an easy out) or live to become the villain.

There's easier ways to make a living.

[DieScum]

There are benefits. I realised years ago that my tech skillset was going out of date and as I constantly contracted on my existing skillset I couldn't keep up.

Yep, switching to an evergreen, but still valuable, skillset is the smart move. Some of the laundry lists of skills you see advertised makes me laugh/wince. Especially when you look at the actual skills most people on those teams have.

So after a couple of stints in management positions I moved into my current role which is quite senior, but I kept being hands on, doing prototypes / mashups / advanced analysis. So to my team I look super hands on, to the business they think I'm one of the super smarts and to IT I'm a thorn.

It's a fine line to walk. You want to make IT's life easier but not start getting in to stuff that you're not in position to evaluate the full consequences of. Messed it up a few times but I think I've got the right balance now.

[PurpleGorilla]

Moving from the tech side to the business side

Surely the holy grail is 'consultant'.

Waft in on a huge rate.

A blend of tech and project experience.

Show the dark arts to the techs, and spell bind the mgt.

I don't want to be a tech monkey or a middle manager.

I want to be the guy who turns up in the white Porsche who blinds people with his brilliance.

[MarillionFan]

Plus I have one blot on my contracting career. I have a 40-39-1 interview record. Having failed to get a gig for the first time 4 years ago after the interview for a £1k a day role working with the executive board of a large FTSE company because I didn't have enough Senior experience, I plan to correct that loss later this year.

[MarillionFan]

Yep, middle management is a fresh hell I intend to assiduously avoid. The good ones do very well though - and they stand out like a sore thumb.

There are benefits. I realised years ago that my tech skillset was going out of date and as I constantly contracted on my existing skillset I couldn't keep up.

But hang worked directly on the business side after a number of years when I gigged and came across the same issues & incompetent managers again & again I was able to drive them as well. Obviously they took the kudos and you did the work.

So after a couple of stints in management positions I moved into my current role which is quite senior, but I kept being hands on, doing prototypes / mashups / advanced analysis. So to my team I look super hands on, to the business they think I'm one of the super smarts and to IT I'm a thorn.

I like my teams to get the Kudos for their own work, I keep out of the limelight & tinker. But as my new VP said to me last month, I want you to manage and be front facing or if you want to do the tech stuff you can **** off to IT!, I will be choosing a different path imminently.

[DieScum]

I suppose you're in the middle of the two hells somewhere, but on the 'paper shuffler' career path the perils of going into management loom. Step carefully.

Yep, middle management is a fresh hell I intend to assiduously avoid. The good ones do very well though - and they stand out like a sore thumb.

[Hobosapien]

I see the pure tech guys out there in the trenches and I feel for them.

I feel same for the management drones who have to endure endless meetings, producing documents that no one reads, then they're first to have to re-apply for their own jobs when there's a shake up and they need to cut body count.

I suppose you're in the middle of the two hells somewhere, but on the 'paper shuffler' career path the perils of going into management loom. Step carefully.

[DieScum]

Have to admit I feel a certain amount of survivor guilt. I see the pure tech guys out there in the trenches and I feel for them. Place I'm at one of the lead consultants on a key new project just left. I can sympathise with the months of dreadful implementations of dreadful new code that caused him to jump - now they've just lost all that experience at a vital time.

I feel like I've been pulled off the battlefield and now I'm sitting at a desk doing intelligence work while the war is raging on outside (to be overly dramatic).

I'm adding way more value on this side though.

I'd say most people on the business side aren't that strong and the skillset you need to be good on the technical side can really transfer over well (although most people on tech side aren't good). Most people struggle to pick up moderately complex topics quickly, are really poor at communicating those concepts and don't even grasp how important sharing information is. Rather than understanding the nature of complexity and the inevitable difficulties in delivering complex work they blame others or hide.

I remember years ago a bloke I worked with talked about how he wanted to get a cosy middle manager position and put his feet up. It disgusted me a lot - like, is that what you really want from your career? To just be one of the stuffed shirts. A bit of me feels like I've gone that way but just because staying on the battlefield is insane. You can't last, you either give up and settle into mediocrity or burn out. Most people settle from the start though.

But now I'm doing great work, really making a difference, and the worst wound I'm going to get is a bit of internal politics which I've spent years learning how to get round on the tech side anyway. (Again apologies for the ridiculous warfare analogies.)

[Hobosapien]

Because contractors are self centered money grabbers.


There's no way you could get a group to give their time without each one of them wanting a fortune to do it.

Wouldn't fall for the 'you can have shares instead of money' ruse?

Not many billionaires came out on top from that type of deal.

[MarillionFan]

I was recently wondering why no one on here tried to organise a CUK startup.

Across the board there's got to be enough skills to fill all the necessary roles.

Even the walters have a chance to prove their worth by helping with the funding or GTFO.

Hardest thing will be coming up with a SKA. That's one's been done.

Because contractors are self centered money grabbers.


There's no way you could get a group to give their time without each one of them wanting a fortune to do it.

[Hobosapien]

Time for a new startup methinks.

I was recently wondering why no one on here tried to organise a CUK startup.

Across the board there's got to be enough skills to fill all the necessary roles.

Even the walters have a chance to prove their worth by helping with the funding or GTFO.

Hardest thing will be coming up with a SKA. That's one's been done.

[MarillionFan]

I've been on the business side for 20 years. I have enough technical skills to be dangerous & excellent business skills. This's means I am normally referred to as shadow IT but I have carved out a niche as an expert in start ups, putting in processes, systems and BI/analytics.

As the startups get bigger I am considered to be a thorn in the side of any CIO and they come gunning. Like now.

Time for a new startup methinks.