I'm entering the back half of my career and once I hit manager I realized that the skills I'd need for what's next were different than the skills that got me here.
I see two paths ahead for me: continue to grow as a business leader and work on my communications, management, and leadership skills or embrace some things inside me and become some flavor of teacher, helping other people learn and grow.
Both paths rely on written and verbal communication as well as an investment in people, and so I've been striving to write and speak more.
I'm going to continue to do this and get better at communicating technical matters in an accessible way.
I'm a father of four. I started out as a self-taught programmer, completed a B.S. in Computer Science and am currently employed full-time since 1998.
I also own a small mobile software company.
I had the opportunity to become a manager at my company just about two weeks ago. I turned it down yesterday. I realized that I loved coding and I don't think I would be great at managing others.
So, I'm taking a different direction. I've asked to be a mentor. Teaching, coaching and helping other developers grow is pretty fulfilling. To that end, I really need to blog more (or at all). And, I'll have to get over my introvertedness.
Wise decision, but drop the "get over my introvertedness" bit. It's part of your makeup and your mindset shouldn't be to not be that way.
However you can, as an introvert, become comfortable in leadership and speaking roles. I love helping people one on one. I've come to see the help I can offer in group teaching settings as well. The introversion is still a key part of my makeup, but that just informs what I'm most comfortable with as well as how I recharge and how often I need to.
For me, I need solitary and time to build, think, read, and write. But that time charges me up to give more to others and focus on sharing the passion and care I have about life while helping others be better.
Doesn't happen overnight, and you may not even want to go that road, but introversion isn't necessarily an obstacle to it.
I'm a father of four. I started out as a self-taught programmer, completed a B.S. in Computer Science and am currently employed full-time since 1998.
I also own a small mobile software company.
Of course you're right. It was bad phrasing on my part. I'm actually closer to an extroverted introvert in that I don't usually mind social interactions, I just have a hard time initiating them and then maintaining them once started. It's probably why I like to code so much as I don't have to interact with many people. I want to be more of a people person, I just don't always have the energy or constant motivation.
In any event, I like helping people. So, that's the direction I'm pivoting my careeer towards.
That's an inspirational goal to have :) Do you intend to keep up with the technical side as you build up the business and and leadership skills? I'm curious how Leaders make that work.
Half of what I'm doing writing (or more) is me maintaining or growing my development skills. At some point, I think leaders move more away from technical / code / framework details and more towards higher-level technologies. Less about the individual pieces and more about how they fit together in an enterprise.
This, so much. I've come to the same realisation that most of the feedback that I give to my team mates these days is related to improving communication.
My three big goals this year are, learn a new programming language, get my Russian to the level it was at during Uni, and give a talk at a coding convention
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
I'm entering the back half of my career and once I hit manager I realized that the skills I'd need for what's next were different than the skills that got me here.
I see two paths ahead for me: continue to grow as a business leader and work on my communications, management, and leadership skills or embrace some things inside me and become some flavor of teacher, helping other people learn and grow.
Both paths rely on written and verbal communication as well as an investment in people, and so I've been striving to write and speak more.
I'm going to continue to do this and get better at communicating technical matters in an accessible way.
I had the opportunity to become a manager at my company just about two weeks ago. I turned it down yesterday. I realized that I loved coding and I don't think I would be great at managing others.
So, I'm taking a different direction. I've asked to be a mentor. Teaching, coaching and helping other developers grow is pretty fulfilling. To that end, I really need to blog more (or at all). And, I'll have to get over my introvertedness.
Wise decision, but drop the "get over my introvertedness" bit. It's part of your makeup and your mindset shouldn't be to not be that way.
However you can, as an introvert, become comfortable in leadership and speaking roles. I love helping people one on one. I've come to see the help I can offer in group teaching settings as well. The introversion is still a key part of my makeup, but that just informs what I'm most comfortable with as well as how I recharge and how often I need to.
For me, I need solitary and time to build, think, read, and write. But that time charges me up to give more to others and focus on sharing the passion and care I have about life while helping others be better.
Doesn't happen overnight, and you may not even want to go that road, but introversion isn't necessarily an obstacle to it.
Of course you're right. It was bad phrasing on my part. I'm actually closer to an extroverted introvert in that I don't usually mind social interactions, I just have a hard time initiating them and then maintaining them once started. It's probably why I like to code so much as I don't have to interact with many people. I want to be more of a people person, I just don't always have the energy or constant motivation.
In any event, I like helping people. So, that's the direction I'm pivoting my careeer towards.
That's an inspirational goal to have :) Do you intend to keep up with the technical side as you build up the business and and leadership skills? I'm curious how Leaders make that work.
Half of what I'm doing writing (or more) is me maintaining or growing my development skills. At some point, I think leaders move more away from technical / code / framework details and more towards higher-level technologies. Less about the individual pieces and more about how they fit together in an enterprise.
This, so much. I've come to the same realisation that most of the feedback that I give to my team mates these days is related to improving communication.
My three big goals this year are, learn a new programming language, get my Russian to the level it was at during Uni, and give a talk at a coding convention