Nov 20
I don’t think I’ve ever read something that so accurately describes my strengths and limitations, as they relate to my work and career:
Wide vs. Deep
I’ve got this theory about what it’s like to be a manager and what it’s like to be a developer and which role suits a particular individual best, and I think it explains pretty well why I deeply, profoundly hate the former and dearly, truly love the latter. …continue reading
November 21st, 2007 at 9:37 am
Although it doesn’t exactly describe me (I actually find myself more wide than deep, when it comes to work style), it’s good to see I’m not the only one who’s not enamored of management. Personality-wise, it just doesn’t fit me. That didn’t stop me from buying into the myth at my last job, but I think that was one of the reasons I hated every working minute of every working day (and then some) of those five years in the management position. Here, my title and job classification reflects management, but I’m a department of one, so I can generally handle my subordinates with no problem.
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:26 am
How did I get here? I was about to respond to a mail sent to group of managers and senior engineers (about comp offs) and wanted find out if INAM is a popular acronym (like INAL). It is not but it should be.
I have been an engineers for a long time. Tried to get into management a couple of times, both out of choice and not, and got back.
The breadth and depth stuff makes a lot sense to me. I have discussed this with others, in these exact same words. There are some in engineering that go into breadth, the so called “solution architects”. But I have a feeling they are managers more then engineers.
One where I differ is that I am bad at it. I am a *very* good engineers, if I may say so myself. I still can easily work all night on a technical issue, did it last night. But hate staying up to update the spreadsheet, mpp, whatever. I dread having to tell someone to pull up his (or her) socks. And every time I do that the person complains I am being rude
This was awesome read. I rarely leave comments. I also rarely forward URLs. I have done both with this.
- inam