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Need some Tech Career guidance. I've been working at Cloud MSP for nearly five years now. Started off as a contractor made my way up to Senior Solutions Architect. I enjoy the job, fully remote, great team, great pay. Recently we've gone through a reorg wherein a lot of positions were eliminated, including my boss' position, but they also opened up a few Lead positions in different disciplines including ones that I am fully qualified for. There don't seem to be any other higher technical positions at this org so I'm effectively near the top of my pay scale without much room to advance. So I can either apply for the Lead position or stay where I'm at maybe scrounge another few thousand before I max out this pay band. The Lead positions they opened up have a lower salary band than my current position. I make a little over 200k, the Lead position tops out at about 190k. I've asked if I'd have to take a pay cut or a promotion with no money. TBD. The Lead position seems to be still quite heavily technical and would also demand I have 5-7 direct reports. I have 0 direct reports now despite leading a small team of engineers. HR's reasoning is that this Lead position is a "transitional" management position and not a technical position, which sort of tracks with what I'm seeing online. However, everything I know about the company and our clients is that I will most likely need to keep up my technical chops while also managing a small team. Does that sound like typical HR cost cutting bullshit or is this actually legit? Now, I know most people will say this puts me on a management track which I'm not super keen on, to be honest. I actually enjoy being in the technical weeds and building and figuring things out. I don't mind working in/ leading a team I've just heard way too many techies say they wish they never got into management and just stayed a simple codemonkey. I've decided that I am going to be a team player and apply for the lead and do my best, because my Director explicitly stated that they had me in mind for one of the Lead positions. However, I am going to reserve the right to turn it down if it sounds like too much management and there's no extra pay. I think I'd be able to scrounge a couple grand out of them if they do offer it to me but we'll see. My basic questions are as follows: 1) Does this position as described really sound like a typical Lead technical position or is it just HR categorizing it as management for cost savings despite being heavily technical? Is this "transitory management" position common in tech? 2) Am I screwing myself out of more top end pay by chasing the management track? 3) If I accept this Lead role am I effectively setting myself up to get no more pay increases since I will be making above the top of the Lead pay band? 4) I also worry, not unreasonably I think , that pursuing a management track very often leaves little time for technical skills so I don't want to paint myself into corner where my technical skills have atrophied and I now only have marketable skills in management. This is kind of what happened to my boss who does no technical work.
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Feb 27, 2024 22:46
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 11:37 |
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Lockback posted:5-7 reports is not a transition into management, that's FT management. Managing those people will probably encompass much/most of your time. 1. Ok, glad I'm not going insane. 2. Right, in my current job/payband I can squeeze another 7k. In the Lead role 0. 3. Here's the problem. The only position above Lead is Director, of which they are currently hiring, and there is only one. Much higher pay sure, but whoever gets that job now probably won't be moving for years. 4. Yup, pretty much what I've seen with my own two eyes. Yeah, after typing all that out I'm not sure why I'm considering it either because of the reasons you stated. I'm tight with my Director so I feel like it would be a bad move to stick my nose up at the position without even trying. If they do offer it I'll illustrate my concerns and see If they want me bad enough to offer me a 5-10% bump. Unlikely but not out of the realm of possibility. Ultimately I've decided to give it an honest try then play hard to get if they do offer me the position.
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Feb 28, 2024 02:00
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Crazyweasel posted:Idgi , that was totally not the conclusion I was tracking - have you expressed any of these concerns directly to your director, even just generically in terms of your desired career growth? If so, are they still trying to push the Lead role? I have raised those concerns with my Edit: to be clear the lead role is the ONLY option I have for career growth in the current org structure. drhankmccoyphd fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Feb 28, 2024 |
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Feb 28, 2024 03:20
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I’m up for a lead position at my tech job. I’m not anti paying many tech questions I can’t crush but what I am looking for is a good resource for management related questions. Stuff like “tell me how you dealt with a difficult team member”, “tell me about a time…” bla bla bla.
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Mar 19, 2024 22:35
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IT Consultant in the cloud space here (AWS). I was just offered a Lead Engineer position with the company I've been working at for 5 years. I'm currently a Senior Cloud Solutions Architect and I recently got a merit increase that puts me nearly exactly at the top of my pay scale. This Lead Position is more of a management track with a 60/40 engineering to management split. The Team Lead position has a LOWER max pay band of maybe 8-10%. Because I am at the top of my pay band they aren't offering any more to my salary. Supposedly there's a different bonus structure with this position which may or may not be more than my current bonus incentives. My concerns with the position are depending who I ask, VP, SVP, Director, this position will have 7-10 direct reports with some off shore contractors sprinkled in. That sounds like not a lot of time left for actual engineering work. I've asked quite a few pointed questions around the roles and responsibilities of this position to multiple higher ups and the direct quote I get is literally "we will figure it out". That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. All that being said I think it is a good opportunity to get some management experience even if it is a bit of a trial by fire. That being said I think it will be quite a bit more work and responsibility which I believe should come with a commensurate pay increase. Now, my question is how hard do I push for even a modest bump and what do I risk by pushing? I can be very frank and respectful with my concerns about the position. The hiring manager (my direct boss) let slip in a one-on-one that they were having trouble finding candidates for the other Lead spots, likely because, of the pay discrepancy and the opaque responsibilities. So that leads me to believe I have at lease some measure of leverage here, I just don't want to overplay my hand. I'd effectively be locking myself out of any future pay raises since I'm well outside the Lead pay band. Open to thoughts.
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Apr 8, 2024 21:39
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Lockback posted:I will say getting to the management track doesn't always mean more money day 1. Do you have headroom to grow in your current role? Do you want to be on the management track? Skipping on this could be the best move but it means you will likely not be offered it again or the role will be even more below your pay grade the next time it comes around. Do I have headroom to grow? It doesn’t seem like it. The next level up beyond lead engineer is director. My current boss was just promoted into that role (and according to the pay bands I saw may have gotten a substantial pay bump). There’s no “senior” lead engineer or principal engineer in our current org structure. Basically he just got there and probably isn’t going anywhere. The follow on question is probably can I grow in my current role and the answer there is no too as they didn’t flesh out the engineering track at all so I’m as high as I can go at this company as an engineer. I think you are correct that it is being presented as a lateral move but I’ve already made a lateral move two years ago to get into my current role. Another lateral move doesnt seem productive to me. As far as career goals: goals A B C and D are make as much money as I possibly can. Goals E and F are effectuate actual change in the organization that have hamstrung us for years and mentor the junior engies.
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Apr 8, 2024 23:20
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Yeah, it's not a good offer. And that's fine because I can push them since I think I at least have some leverage. I got a look at the bonus structure for the lead position and it's actually worse than my current position. So my bullet points for asking for more money will be: - Loss of compensation due to bonus structure - Potential impact on work/life balance - Many unknowns as far as roles and responsibilities - Profit But yeah, I'm thinking even if I don't get them to budge on pay I'll probably take the role do it for a year and use it to pad my resume to grab a new job. Jordan7hm posted:If your goal is to make more money can I suggest seeing if you can get the director jump within consulting at another firm. That’s been my approach and it’s been very good so far at accelerating salary growth. Yeah, I think that's probably the way to go. I'd be curious to know what your experience was like. drhankmccoyphd fucked around with this message at 13:41 on Apr 9, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 13:24
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Are you a consultant with more strategic responsibilities or are you a technology implementation body for hire? I'm not sure I understand the question, but I'll do my best to interpret. I'm definitely more of strategic consultant but at times I am a "body for hire". I architect and deliver technical solutions. Some clients need a lot of handholding because their tech stack is broken and they need someone to figure out what's wrong and rebuild from scratch and there are clients who know exactly what they need, have detailed roadmaps and tickets ready to be executed. I am expected to perform both those roles and know when and how to differentiate between the two. Right now I'm very technical, architecting solutions, writing up the plans, executing some of it myself and delegating tasks to others on my team. This new role is pretty much all of that plus manage these 10 people.
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Apr 9, 2024 15:09
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 11:37 |
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dpkg chopra posted:When is a contract position worth considering? I've been approached by a couple of recruiters for 6-8 month contract roles that very sound interesting, but at the same time the idea of leaving my role (where I'm well regarded and have a decent amount of job security) for something with a definite end-date feels a bit daunting. In tech I get these contract offers fairly often and there’s practically no scenario in which I’d leave my salaried position for a single digit multiplier of my hourly wage. The only scenario I would even consider it is if said contract was enough money in the contract to be equal to 2 or more years at my current salary during the duration of the contract and paid for something desirable like top secret government clearance. Beyond that not worth leaving my steady tech job. Maybe if things got really bad at my job and I was looking for an immediate exit strategy.
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Apr 24, 2024 16:19
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