As fall begins, my thoughts often turn to the future. One of the common questions for IT professionals thinking about the future is whether to pursue a career in management.
It’s a good time to think about this if you’ve been purely technical for a long time. The coming wave of baby boomer retirements will leave plenty of management jobs available.
But how do you know whether management is really for you? Here are a few thoughts for the curious.
Reasons to not go into management:
Desire for money. While management jobs can pay well, not all do. In fact, when I managed a large group, there were a number of purely technical people who reported to me who made more than I did. And I thought that was appropriate. Pay is not a matter of position, but of supply and demand. Rare and valuable technical skills may be worth more than relatively common management skills.
Desire for power. One of the best-kept secrets of management is that the higher up you go in an organization, the more — not less — dependent on others you become. Successful managers know that power is mostly an illusion. The more people you manage, the more your success is the sum total of theirs. Alone, you are just a person with some ideas. The desire to dominate generally foments coups, not loyalty or productivity.
Read on at ComputerWorld.
Post a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.