Comment Re:Write or teach. (Score 2) 416
And that attitude is why so many people are put off teaching. How are we supposed to get really good developers, analysts, technical leads and so on if there is this attitude towards teaching?
In a similar vein - and I know this will be like a dagger to the heart - what about considering retraining as management; if the problem you have faced is that management are "technically illiterate", surely you can see there is a need for more technically-able staff (if they are capable of the leap) to move into management?
Obviously, there are risks that:
- you will quickly lose sight of the technical issues (and become "one of 'them'")
- that you'll stink at management; it's easy to be a bad manager, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be competent let alone good
- (worst of all) you'll be a bad manager
If nothing else, it would give you an appreciation of a different aspect of the industry.
I speak from experience. I took the leap a few years ago after a similar amount of time working my way up the technical ladder. It's been very hard work and it requires a lot of commitment. While I won't say I regret the move, I will say that I miss some of the things I've given up, not least the camaraderie that exists within development teams, but which you tend to see turned against management whenever issues arise.
I'd like to think, however, that my teams appreciate the fact that I actually understand the issues - not least because I have kept reasonably up to date with the technology in my own time (another sacrifice). Of course, what they appreciate less is the fact that they find it much harder to blind me with technobabble than they would a parachuted-in MBA.
