Job Stuff....Management??

[booker81]

First. I love my job. I adore it. I look forward to every day of work, and I leave work satisfied that I've done a good job. It's busy, challenging, technical, and intricate.

Pretty much, I'm in IT, but I do mainly problem solving of existing system issues, brainstorming for changes to increase efficiency and qualify, and testing for those changes to see if I can break it or uncover hidden issues. I love it.

I have a review coming soon, and one of the things hinted is questioning if I would like to move to more a management type position - team leader or similar.

The thing is, I DON'T. I don't want to manage PEOPLE. I don't delegate well, I don't care for meetings, I don't want to deal with the whole social aspect of people (I'm an Aspie and it just doesn't come natural).

This has come up previously when I was at a different position in the company - I "fixed" that by moving into my current position, which is a great fit for me.

However, I don't know how to put it nicely that I don't have any care for moving up the management chain. I'd rather move up the technical chain (I'm currently at the lowest level for my position, two more levels are available, plus the salary increases with each.)

I think they assume that if you do a good job, it's a given that you want to move up....to management. The company I work for is VERY big on promoting within, all of the lower and mid level management started off entry level, and a majority of upper management has been the same.

I don't want to offend or hurt my chances within the company, but I don't know how to tactically say I don't have any interest in management! Give me a cube and a few computers, and let me rip through the systems, make me a go-to person for problems, but please, don't make me a manager. I don't want to be a people person.


Gah!

 

[bakerjw]

I've failed many interviews because I don't want to be a manager. Usually they just can't grasp that not everyone wants to sit back and tell everyone else what to do. And unfortunately a team leader is considered more of a manager type of worker who deals with the meetings and other BS for the rest of the "team". I've been in your position and it takes time to create an awareness that you really know what you're doing and that you 're a better asset if you're allowed to grow in your current position. Some managers get it and others don't but we are the ones that pull people's backsides out of the fires or who allow bad managers to show their ineptitude.

That said it doesn't hurt to take on major projects where you do have to involve other people. I've seen our type of worker make the best team leaders because it isn't a "Me and my people" attitude rather it is an "Us" attitude that gets the job done.

 

[perolane]

I think bakerjw just answered your question.....simply explain to them "that you 're a better asset if you're allowed to grow in your current position."

Best of luck...you'll do fine!!

 

[nivtup]

Management = Adult Day Care

 

[MSDeb]

Perhaps you could find a way to mention you see yourself serving the company as a technical expert rather than as a manager.

 

[sonjab314]

Quote:

 

[booker81]

Thought I'd bump this up

We have a lot of large projects going on right now, and my manager and TL haven't had time to do the review. Last week however, we had our company wide associate meeting, where they bus half the company in the morning and half in the afternoon to the city Conference center (we have about 2000 employees), where they feed us goodies and then go over the past year and how the company is performing. We have a new CEO now (who also started in the company 14 years ago), and their big thing this year was talking about how your can move up - any job can be yours, including the CEO position

which I don't care for LOL! I ended up riding the bus over with my manager and sitting with her, and riding it back with her.

During the CEO presentation, he talked about 3 upcoming projects that are going to be very, very big, that are anticipated to either change how work is done completely, or help bring even more business to the company. One project involves work for every department of the company, it's work is spread over many departments. The second project is headed by a team in IT that solely works on it. The third project....is headed by me and a handful of developers. I do all of the testing and suggestions, and work on making sure it's going to work about as perfectly it can work. It's huge. I work in it, and then say "I want this to do this, and this to look like this," and send it back to development to create what I see. The system we are creating will be patented and the software probably sold to other companies world wide. While the CEO was talking about it, my manager was grinning and poking at me...because it's my "baby" up there on the big screen, with the CEO talking about it. It was crazy, in a good way

On the way back on the bus, I brought up to my manager the review I was to have, and told her I'd thought a lot about it, and I'd just rather spill it out to her now, than waiting for months before we have time to get together. I told her I was not really looking to move to TL or manager. I told her that I've heard one should look around and think of the people who's jobs you would like, and I mentioned two people on different teams. She worried that I wanted to leave our team, but I explained that those two people on their respective teams are the "go-to" people - they are the experts and if there is a big, bad problem, they are the ones that fix it. They are the best problem solvers and their managers and TL's refer to them for help. They are highly respected in their positions. I told my manager that's what I would like to be - the go-to technical person on our team (front end systems). I want to become someone who has the answers and the skills to work on the most complex issues, someone who works on hard issues all the time, or large projects that require a lot of knowledge and finesse. I want to stay on our team. I told her I'd thought of moving to programming only because of the better salary, but I don't think I would like being in that area as much as I like being on the team I am. I also said I understood that becoming a "technical specialist" would be something that only comes with time and effort. She told me they are ALWAYS trying to find someone who would want to fill that niche, and it's hard to find someone that has the knowledge but doesn't want to switch to management.

Since then, she must have spoken to my TL, who suddenly has started treating me not just like a good employee, but as her almost "second in command". She often is overbooked for meetings, so she sent me two meeting invites to "stand in and head the meeting" for her. She discusses with me how to balance the workload for our team. She has already been sending me research requests sent directly to her, and forwarding to me to handle (she has Blackberry, so sends them while she's in meetings).

I've also been given the second piece of the huge system project I'm on, which again, is even more important and requires everything to work right.

My teammates seem to be happy to have me there for good, because I had talked about moving departments to programming, and their response was NOOO!! Stay here!! They are great folks to work with, and they've been turning to me for technical help, and I really have been making sure to help them when they need it. One guy is really fun to brainstorm with - we go back and forth with "what if we did this?" and build on each other's ideas. Another girl is newish, and I spent a lot of time with helping her understand system issues - what is happening and why, and helping her figure it out on her own. She wrote a very nice email to my manager and TL about how I helped her not only fix the system issues, but took the time to explain the how and why of the issues.

So....all is going awesome

 

[Boyd]

 

[True Grit]

That's great. Congratulations!

 

[Judy]

That's wonderful. I know only too well how important the quality of one's employers is. What's that old saw about promoting to the level of one's incompetence? Not really applicable here, but sort of. Managers -- adult day care workers -- so often don't have the insight to recognize where a person's talents lie and make good use of that, for the good of all. As a result, people who are doing a great job can find themselves in the position of accepting a job they know they can't or don't want to do as well, or finding other employment.

I'm so glad this didn't happen to you.