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Ask HN: What non-tech roles are there for swe?

11 points by random99292 ↗ HN
I have been a technical startup founder for 8 years, and for the last two year I have been a solutions architect at a non-tech corporations. I am now looking for a new job and was wondering what other non-tech roles are there for someone with a more technical background?

The solutions architect role was ok in that I got to do more program management stuff in addition to architecting systems. I didn't like being on the sell side though because I found project managers keep cutting budget to win the project.

I am considering trying program management roles. I like interacting with stakeholders. My ultimate goal is engineer management, but I doubt anyone will give a chance in this market. Does anyone have advice what's the next best role that will help reach this goal?

9 comments

[ 435 ms ] story [ 780 ms ] thread
zer0sand0nes
Tough question to answer but if your network is solid - you can do stuff.

I was in a similar boat, and still am, frankly, but at this point I have decided that dealing with people is a big No-No for me, so I will stick to the IC track.

This way I will have to get good at coding and my skills but my head will also be free of bullshit. Ideally, I would have my own LLC and get work that way, but that also seems very difficult to do.

It seems that asking the questions that you're asking involves some kind of "spark" and brings to mind the saying "anything worth doing is hard" or something like that.

So I would say if you are confident that you want to do Engineering Management is just apply to jobs and tweak your resume in the best way possible, and explain how your previous roles aligned with engineering management.

And I mean really become a beast about this. Make your resume slide through to the Recruiters table with zero friction.

And then good luck on your interviews.

kenlo
It's great you ask yourself the question. And share it. What do you know about _product_ management?

Have you ever fallen in love with a problem? How good are you in describing your customer's job?

If you had to reverse-engineer the offering of your past jobs, how would you describe the value they created for users? What would they lose if they stop using them?

mmarian
Having interacted with product managers in large corporates, I feel like that's only 1/3 of the work. 2/3 is navigating the corpo BS.
leros
Having been a product manager, I would say a big part of the job is "having the responsibility for a goal with zero power to achieve it" and then having to go influence people to get resources, time, etc to work on something. Lots of politics and corporate red tape to deal with.
mmarian
Yeah. I'm been tempted to move into product management because I care a lot more about the business side than your average dev. Then I need to constantly remind myself of what I've observed ^_^

What kind of job did you switch to after being a PM, if you don't mind me asking?

leros
I've been contracting myself as a one man team (dev + PM) and also starting my own business.

While being a PM, I realized I really miss the technical stuff but I also care about the business stuff too much to be a dev in a company. I'm hoping I can make solo entrepreneurship work so I can play both roles.

I'm not sure there is a corporate career path I'd find satisfying at this point.

mmarian
Hmmm, interesting, didn't know you could do that. I'd love to be in a situation where I can convince founders of what to build.

I'm trying solo entrepreneurship as well but it's not working so far. Would be nice to follow your journey if you have a profile to share.

b20000
I am interested in this question as well. In particular I would like to get an idea of what a product manager, project manager, program manager, engineering program manager, engineering manager, all do, in summary, on a day to day basis, without sugar coating it, and which of these roles is easier to transition into as an ex-founder, which ones you can level up the fastest / easiest in, and which ones will pay you more in the same amount of time as you climb up. I'm perplexed that this issue has not been discussed in more depth on HN.