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Ask HN: Career path for developers

22 points by hunterjrj ↗ HN
Hi All,

I've been developing professionally for 10 years. Lately, I've had an itch. I'm starting to become anxious to move on to something other than full time coding, and I'm starting to think that I'd like to spend more time having "face-time" with people.

I'm not particularly interested in managing. I believe I'm inclined towards demonstrating, guiding, training, advising, etc. As part of a previous job, I was responsible for going on-site, gathering requirements and overseeing implementation of our product, which involved a lot of face to face discussions with new people. I miss the social aspects/challenges of that work.

My question is, have any of you made the transition from developer to a people-oriented role that didn't involve becoming a manager? If so, do you have any advice for a developer aspiring to do just that?

Thanks

17 comments

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ScottWhigham
I've done a bit of the "technical liason for sales" and that can be entertaining for a short time. You get to be in front of people - both customers and colleagues - and you get input from both sides. With what you're looking for, that might be a good fit. If you do opt for that, I'd want a cut of commissions for any sales that I helped sell :)
hunterjrj
Any idea if commissions are standard in roles like that?
samt
yeah, absolutely. In my experience it's often a team-based incentive program to encourage cooperation with other tech sales people.
ploer
At least in my company's market, a 'sales engineer' role is definitely going to be commisioned, and it seems like it meets the "demonstrating, guiding, training, advising, etc." criteria.

Lots of oportunities to work with customers, lots of technical involvement, and a strong position to influence product direction. It's also good background if you think you might want to move into product management at some point (or if you eventually get interested in engineering management, for that matter).

But (again, probably depending on market), the travel demands can be pretty significant, and you have to thrive within the culture and pressures of a sales organization. Personally, I think I'd burn out on it pretty quickly.

hboon
Being a sales engineer is usually commissioned and you get to do lots of demonstrations and presentations, working with customers (read: more prospects than paid customers). It is a very useful experience because you get to do part of a sales job (selling, convincing people, handling disagreements, presentations) as an engineer.

However a lot depends on the size of the company. If the company is fairly large and established, you will hardly be able to influence product direction. In fact, you will most likely be in the position where you might be able to provide feedback to the product team, but you will almost never have the chance to do any hands on improvement to the product. Obviously that is because you are not part of product development/R&D, but believe me, that feeling sucks if you are a good engineer.

If you have never done it before and the opportunity presents itself, jump at it. I learnt tons when I was a sales engineer.

iron_ball
Obvious official HN response: do a startup, where your people skills will be just as important as your technical chops, yet you will still take full advantage of your years of experience.

My response: "management" is a fuzzy area. A product manager, for instance, can be very different from a project manager -- and it would involve a lot of what you're talking about.

hunterjrj
I'm not interested in being a PHB. That is my aversion to management...
swombat
Most start-ups involve very little management work until much later.
mseebach
Then don't be a PHB. PHB is a stereotype and a caricature. Being a good leader is all about people skills, and what you're looking for sounds a lot like what a project manager could do. Note "could": once you step up to management, you become the chief architect of your own job. If you project PHB on it, that that's what you'll be.
coglethorpe
Some of the best career advice I ever got was from a recruiter who had a PhD in microbiology: "Don't lose your technical edge." I sensed that he regretted stepping out of the lab into a sales/recruiting role. He's a great guy but had to step out of recruiting and I met him again when he was working managing contracts for a company I was working for.

So whatever you do, I'd recommend keeping your coding skills. You could do that by starting your own software training company for example, maybe start a site that teaches basic skills to people and couple it with live courses. That's my 2 cents, anyway.

rgrieselhuber
Totally agree.

The most intimidating thing to non-technical business people (not that you should aim for intimidating people, but sometimes it helps to have an edge in a competitive environment) are people close at the top of the "value-chain" and actually know how to build what they are selling.

Even better if you're the one with control over both what you're selling and how you sell it.

interknot
The bit about the PhD in microbiology caught my eye here--to people getting bored with "blub" programming: perhaps look into a field like bioinformatics, meteorology, and so on. You'd be working on difficult, "technical" things, but you'd be able to leverage your existing skills and simultaneously assist with the (inevitable?) computational aspects of that particular research.
scorpioxy
Your comment is certainly applicable to me. I am interested in bioinformatics, but i have no idea how to get started in something like that.

What do you think?

edw519
Interesting question. I don't think I've ever seen it here before.

I am a solo founder working on a startup that needs lots of hands-on hacking now, but the plan is to evolve to the point where a much greater percentage of the resources required will be for people with heavy technical backgrounds doing more face to face stuff with customers.

Perhaps we should talk. Contact me off line please.

Femur
Have you considered consulting? By that i don't mean "charge hourly to do development" but true consulting.

I worked for the technical consulting branch of one of the "Big Four" accounting firms as an Oracle DBA for a few years and found that I used my soft skills much more than my technical stuff. Most of the projects I was brought in for where very troubled and usually had a political AND technical problem. The usual method to solve these involved a lot of creativity to implement the best technical solution given the political climate of our clients. It can be very rewarding solving these kinds of issues.

wallflower
Consider volunteering your skills for a non-profit and getting into a leadership role. I've done that (without the intention) but it is amazing how involved you can get with the mission/issues of a non-profit organization (where you don't have any financial stake - e.g. salary). Yes, I primarily help with technology analysis/implementation but they listen to me when it comes to marketing (sometimes). Non-profits are interesting because they draw positive-oriented individuals from a wide spectrum of careers. You can learn a lot just by showing up and listening.

My managers recognize it officially as a potentially valuable career growth action (on my own initiative). Not only has it helped me do better at my job, it helps me feel better (diverts some workaholicsm towards something good)

cmars232
Find some big technical problem to solve that's bigger than yourself, and get people involved. It'll all flow from there.