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TouchyMcFeely posted:Quoting this because it can absolutely be true. Incoming anecdote! When I finished my master's degree 3 years ago I had a serious sit down with my group leader about my future in the company. His boss, the Regional Manager, was close to retirement and as things stood at that time, when he retired one of the two Group Leaders would be promoted opening up a position I would have a good shot at. What ended up happening was the Regional Manager was forced into retirement early and our region was merged with another. There has since been 2 more reorganizations that have resulted in additional merging and the number of Group Leader positions has gotten smaller. Uh oh, I see a lot of myself in this post! I'm approaching a similar crossroads at my current company. I've been successful as a senior analyst, but in my opinion it's time to jump to some sort of manager position. They keep telling me about what a good job I've been doing and maybe they will send me to Colombia or China, but then nothing happens. So, I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to leave in order to move up. Mentally I'm a little stuck on the management experience aspect. To some extent it seems like a chicken/egg scenario, in which you need manager experience to be a manager. What's the mentality of outside companies when it comes to hiring for a manager position? How much of a strike against me will it be that I don't currently have any managerial experience? Should I focus solely on external analyst positions, or are managerial roles at least plausible?
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Feb 17, 2013 17:27
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TouchyMcFeely posted:Good advice. Thanks for the thoughtful response! I've got a couple of those same things going for me (i.e. advanced degree, visible roles on big projects) but there are always ways I can improve. I'll need to put some serious thought into finding a "manager" role in a non-work capacity. Also, HBR is a good read.
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Feb 18, 2013 14:13
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Ultimate Mango posted:Why do you want to be a manager? I agree that most companies do a poor job of succession planning and leadership development. Either your company doesn't do it or they are doing it with someone else. Does your leadership know that you want to move into management? Some industries will promote analysts to managers, but those tend to be ones where managers still do analysis and years of experience doing the analyst job are directly relevant (Accounting/Finance for one). This is a very fair question. One of the reasons I want to be a manager is for career growth. I've been successful as an individual contributor, and to me the next challenge is to see if I can develop other talent. I innately like teaching/sharing knowledge, but I realize that doesn't mean I would be a good manager. Still, I'm not going to know unless I try! Also, if I do become a manager I would like to keep my hand in the analysis work, at least to some degree. With all that being said, another motivating factor is money. Rightly or wrongly, my company (and most, I assume) value managerial experience more than individual contribution. I've helped drive incremental revenue by at least 3% every month since I started, but it hasn't gotten me an extra dime. I have an expensive graduate degree to pay off, so my options are to either go into the management realm or go into consulting. I've made it clear that I want to be in management, I have excellent performance reviews, and I have a solid rapport with people from the entry level all the way to a couple of VPs. I keep getting told that leadership views me as a high potential employee and they want me to have more opportunities (international assignments, special projects, management), but that inevitably ends up ringing hollow. Enough is enough. Two years on the same job, and I've learned it in and out. I'm stagnant, and I'm not going to play the "wait around until someone comes to you" game, which is what they want me to do. For what it's worth, my direct manager is also stuck in the same quandary. Little to no career guidance, and pigeonholed into his current role because as long as he's there nothing gets screwed up. His boss (my director) was recently canned, so perhaps the whole mentality will change once there is someone with vision and leadership skills at the helm.
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Feb 19, 2013 21:07
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DukAmok posted:I really don't like this mindset from the perspective of a company. A smart company would recognize key contributors and provide them paths for advancement that don't involve management, but it looks all too common that the only way up is through the management ranks. I'm facing the same dilemma, I have no strong desire to manage people aside from the benefits it entails of increased responsibility and compensation, but if there was a parallel track that would allow me to keep doing what I'm doing but grow in that way (for me, maybe grow into a programmer analyst or something instead of an analyst) with commensurate wage growth, I'd take it in a heartbeat. I've seen plenty of blog posts recently talking about this, so maybe it's gaining some traction. For now though, manager path it is. Dude, I hear ya. Sounds like you feel stuck. I'd like to expand my analytical skills, but that would be a lateral move at best. Also, I hope everyone in this thread has looked at the LinkedIn networking thread! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3531540 Pretty good advice if you want to make a move.
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Feb 20, 2013 01:28
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Crazyweasel posted:I think its prudent for a company to be skeptical of people who want to get into management without clear reasons. They understand that people wanting to get into management for the money or advancement are a dime a dozen. You need to identify specific issues within the group you see going to manage and how you will fix them. That's what they want to hear. The bottom line of the company is to hire who is going to perform the best, and having ideas before even getting the job is a great way to show that you are the best. I appreciate your opinion, but I'd like to play devil's advocate. Isn't it naive to think that individual contributors will have some sort of overwhelming intrinsic motivation beyond compensation? Rynes et al reported that candidates regularly under-report the importance of salary when queried, but monetary incentives produce the largest and most reliable increases in job performance. Put another way, the desire for more money (at the manager level) is going to produce the highest performing management candidates (on average). Certainly it is a wonderful thing to want to move into management for the "right" reason such as personal growth or following a calling, but dismissing someone because they want more money strikes me as being insincere.
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Feb 20, 2013 18:39
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ProFootballGuy posted:Money, power, and status. Most if not all the other reasons are bullshit designed to tactfully acquire those things. But, bullshit is a *huge* part of organizational politics. I hear what you're saying and agree, but only to an extent. The ability to get along is integral to long term career success. Still, it seems sanctimonious for someone already at the management level to require some sort of drive for non-monetary self-actualization to be considered for a management position. "Well when I made the jump to management I did it for the RIGHT reasons, like LOYALTY and DRIVING SHAREHOLDER VALUE and LEADERSHIP and PROBLEM SOLVING and THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX and SHIFTING THE PARADIGM. It just so happens that it came with additional money. In other news, got mine." But I think you're absolutely right about being able to put things tactfully, whether going for a raise, or turning down work, or any of the other thousands of things that come up in business and need a delicate touch.
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Feb 20, 2013 22:05
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