From IC to manager
My story moving from individual contributor to manager.
Intro
What makes you a good developer, will not necessarily make you a good manager. There are different skill sets needed to excel in one or the other. As you grow more and more as a developer, you need to find challenges for yourself.
Especially when you are a senior for some time. Management is a different skillset that you need to develop and can be a great next step. In this article, I will share my story from IC (individual contributor) to manager.
From IC to manager podcast episode
I’ve had the pleasure to be chatting with Chris Blakey on The Leadership Link podcast about this topic. You can watch the full episode here.
The reason why I thought management might be for me
A lot of people may feel daunted when talking about management, thinking that is not for them. But I’ll tell you how I knew that management might be for me.
I was always good at collaborating and communicating when it came to certain projects or functionalities. I wanted to always make sure we have the correct requirements and that we are building the right things.
I wanted to fully understand the needs and find the best solutions that would fit these needs.
I also understood the importance of managing expectations. You can do the best work in the world, but if the expectations are not met correctly, all the effort is wasted. So I wanted to always ensure that this was done correctly.
And that automatically brought me to the place where I wished to have a bigger impact on the projects and the team. Not only in details but also a lot more say in the direction and the overall team in general.
I was overthinking about my career path
Like a lot of developers, I was contemplating a LOT regarding the direction of my career. The questions: “What is going to be that next step for me?” and “Should I go into management, architecture route or should I grow as an IC?” were always on my mind. I believe that my growth was stagnating because I didn’t know that.
I was always leaning more towards management, because of the reasons listed above. I was always good technically as well, but I was standing out from others because my main focus wasn’t on technical solutions and approaches.