Technology

I'm an IT worker bee and I agree, management sucks

I worked as engineer for 15 years and then management for the last 2 years. The urge to go back to engineering never stop. What keeps me in management is seeing how I can create the environment where engineers are able to do their work.

If I go back to being an engineer, I won't be able to make sure product requirements are clear, priorities are correct, team members will have a chance to practice skills they don't get to do at work. At the minimum, protecting my engineers from stupid back to office policies that were enforced just because the CEO felt lonely one day. Would someone who has not worked as an engineer understand the feeling of stairing at the screen for 8 hours not able to start anything due to burnout is the worst feeling ever? Will they hear the grinding wheels when soneone used the wrong term during meetings?

There are just so many things that I can do for MY engineers, exactly what I wanted when I was still an engineer. I don't trust others to provide that so I take it on myself to do it. Granted, I need support from upper level for this to happen so it's an important aspect for me when I apply for jobs.

Moving is possible but difficult.

I tried doing that few years ago but you literally start from step 1. I went against a lot of recruits, that were single, and fresh to the job scene. They are more than ready to slave away the hours to impress their managers.

I on the other hand wasn't single, not ready to over work, and the salary offered for starters was not impressive after all these years.

Suffice to say, I feel much better now knowing how much I make for the hours I put in.

Do you really need the IT bit in there?

Management sucks. Full stop.

I moved from a technical role to IT management. I never truly put the technical hat down though, so I can't speak to pure management vs. technical-only transition. I will say that the technical stuff keeps me interested, but the manager salary keeps me doing the job. This only works to a certain point though, and I'm happy with middle manager salary working from home making "big city" money.

Yay, something I can talk to.

I'm a middle manager in tech delivery. Started in a different industry, moved into the saas world at the right time, became a dev, became a contractor, made lots of money, had a family, needed more regular hours so went the management route, less money, more stress. About a year ago I took on a new role which has me across approx 10 directs each who have their own squads of 6 to 10 people.

I don't hate it but it is hard work. And yes it is objectively harder and more stressful than being a developer, simply because of the level of accountability that I personally take.

In terms of expertise. I know a deep amount about one platform, a moderate amount about three others and I have no fucking clue about the rest. Integration, for instance. Yet I'm accountable for delivery and eye watering budgets. I'm sure the devs have a similar opinion of me as to what's posted elsewhere in the thread, that I don't understand the specific technology hence shouldn't be directing the work stream, but the thing is - thats not the role.

The role is to manage money and people. The array of brilliant technologists who i've seen step into leadership roles then slowly drown and fail is distressing. So when I'm looking for leads to bring into positions, a lot of the time I'm looking for people who naturally want to step forward and want to lead. Most of the time they do well even without the full depth of tech.

I think this is the link back to your question. Like, can you go back to being a dev? If your promotion to management was as a result of being the most experienced dev, then yes absolutely, you should fit back in fine. If you were promoted because you were the voice in the team that said why or how or what if or let's do this, then I'm sorry. Leadership will seek you out once again.

I just recently called it quits from my 10yr j.o.b. as Sr. Tech Analyst. We had an awesome team a couple years ago, but upper Mgmt had their own ideas that went against the grain of the team. Dated Infrastructure neglected after years of warnings ('03 Servers). And a complete lack of trust in their associates. Then, mergers, and new bosses in other time zones, and new HR trying to grasp managing a team remotely. FUCK! I hated it.

And that's when I let my shit go to hell. Hopefully, for the better! Taking time off to reevaluate my career. Rather not work a job that requires me to be available 24/7 in a 9-1-1. Yeah... maybe a company with <50 employees.

In the meantime, I have personal things to work on, to better handle shitty Mgmt. Balance of life is important. I'm done trying to kill myself for a job.

Management and technical skillsets are totally different, and in my experience, people who are good at politicking but not great at technical work move up, whereas great technical people tend to not be great at politicking and top out in engineering. The problem is there is often a lot of ego and imposter syndrome to those that move from technical to management, so they like to assert technical decrees or make decisions without trusting or consulting their SME's. That's the constant rub I have seen in several orgs now between management and the IT staff.

I moved from technical, to management, did that for around 4 years and decided that was enough. Switched jobs (also probably way overdue at that time) to a senior network engineer, left after a year and became a network architect. I’ve done that for a few employers ever since and generally love it.

I just do this for money, I care about my work of course, but end of the day I want to shut down and forget about it. My current role lets me do that pretty easily.

Being in management that long might make it harder, unfortunately. But I’d totally recommend trying to pivot to an architect role if you have the skills.

90% of management in any job are useless because most of the them have never done or have not done the job(s) of those they manage for so long they have little to no idea how to do it . And once you get into executive positions the uselessness is even greater. Just soulless vomit spewing moronic yes-men.