Next career move after big tech?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Start up

Only if you are a founder with significant equity protected from dilution.

Startups cannot pay anything close to BigTech TC, and realistically most options are worthless. If you have actual equity in the business, even if it has a bumpy exit you usually have some payout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been in my individual contributor role in big tech for about 6 years, making anywhere from 250k to 400k/year depending on the stock price. I am in a technical role and have never held a management title before.
I feel that my career is starting to stall and want to make a move. The problem is that most companies don’t pay that much outside the big tech unless it is a director role or above. I am open in a management position but don’t have that title on my resume, although I have led and managed multiple projects for large enterprise customers in my current role.
How would you approach this situation?

If you’ve never been a people manager, it will be pretty hard to move to a people manager role, much less a director role.

Maybe try to stay at your current company for a year or two and gain people management skills.

[Anonymous]

Careful what you wish for, Op!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been in my individual contributor role in big tech for about 6 years, making anywhere from 250k to 400k/year depending on the stock price. I am in a technical role and have never held a management title before.
I feel that my career is starting to stall and want to make a move. The problem is that most companies don’t pay that much outside the big tech unless it is a director role or above. I am open in a management position but don’t have that title on my resume, although I have led and managed multiple projects for large enterprise customers in my current role.
How would you approach this situation?

If you’ve never been a people manager, it will be pretty hard to move to a people manager role, much less a director role.

Maybe try to stay at your current company for a year or two and gain people management skills.

Titles don't mean much and don't transfer from company to company. Many directors and VPs at some companies won't quality for mid level or even entry level positions in other companies.

[Anonymous]

There's nothing wrong with being an individual contributor. Subject matter expertise is extremely valuable to companies, particularly if it's a highly-regulated one. Highly-compensated middle managers are often the first to do when there are layoffs, but not ICs who are necessary to the company's survival (i.e. can defend against regulator investigations and enforcement actions).

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that business values "who you know" even above subject matter expertise. If your company has a problem and you can solve it by just picking up the phone (or at least get it in front of the right person), you will not be laid off.

Decide whether being a people manager is really what you want. If it were, you would be one already. It sounds like you think that's the only path to advancement based on what you're seeing amongst your peers. It's not, but being a team leader is a complementary skill to subject matter expertise. That way, you can lead and mentor younger employees in your field as they progress at the company (i.e. develop high performers).

If this interests you, I would suggest putting together a plan to work with younger employees in your company, even if they don't report to you. Successful mentoring gets you noticed, so when a manager slot opens, it's yours for the asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's nothing wrong with being an individual contributor. Subject matter expertise is extremely valuable to companies, particularly if it's a highly-regulated one. Highly-compensated middle managers are often the first to do when there are layoffs, but not ICs who are necessary to the company's survival (i.e. can defend against regulator investigations and enforcement actions).

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that business values "who you know" even above subject matter expertise. If your company has a problem and you can solve it by just picking up the phone (or at least get it in front of the right person), you will not be laid off.

Decide whether being a people manager is really what you want. If it were, you would be one already. It sounds like you think that's the only path to advancement based on what you're seeing amongst your peers. It's not, but being a team leader is a complementary skill to subject matter expertise. That way, you can lead and mentor younger employees in your field as they progress at the company (i.e. develop high performers).

If this interests you, I would suggest putting together a plan to work with younger employees in your company, even if they don't report to you. Successful mentoring gets you noticed, so when a manager slot opens, it's yours for the asking.

To add to this post, an easy way to show off your subject matter expertise and get younger employees interested is to host a 30-minute brown bag discussion of XYZ topic. Make sure you prepare a nice presentation and include helpful resources at the end (i.e. hyperlinked articles, authorities, etc...) If you're nervous about presenting, practice your "script" a few times to have it down. Also, anticipate potential questions and have answers. That way, if you don't get any questions you have a few that you can raise (many people can't come up with questions on the fly) in order to kick off a discussion.

A monthly brown bag can lead to an organizational working group on the topic, which in turn can lead to a "center of excellence," and eventually your promotion to management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's nothing wrong with being an individual contributor. Subject matter expertise is extremely valuable to companies, particularly if it's a highly-regulated one. Highly-compensated middle managers are often the first to do when there are layoffs, but not ICs who are necessary to the company's survival (i.e. can defend against regulator investigations and enforcement actions).

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that business values "who you know" even above subject matter expertise. If your company has a problem and you can solve it by just picking up the phone (or at least get it in front of the right person), you will not be laid off.

Decide whether being a people manager is really what you want. If it were, you would be one already. It sounds like you think that's the only path to advancement based on what you're seeing amongst your peers. It's not, but being a team leader is a complementary skill to subject matter expertise. That way, you can lead and mentor younger employees in your field as they progress at the company (i.e. develop high performers).

If this interests you, I would suggest putting together a plan to work with younger employees in your company, even if they don't report to you. Successful mentoring gets you noticed, so when a manager slot opens, it's yours for the asking.

To add to this post, an easy way to show off your subject matter expertise and get younger employees interested is to host a 30-minute brown bag discussion of XYZ topic. Make sure you prepare a nice presentation and include helpful resources at the end (i.e. hyperlinked articles, authorities, etc...) If you're nervous about presenting, practice your "script" a few times to have it down. Also, anticipate potential questions and have answers. That way, if you don't get any questions you have a few that you can raise (many people can't come up with questions on the fly) in order to kick off a discussion.

A monthly brown bag can lead to an organizational working group on the topic, which in turn can lead to a "center of excellence," and eventually your promotion to management.

Being able to give a talk is table stakes for senior IC roles, not something that gets you promoted. And at that point, you have access to good speaking opportunities if you want. Fine to give the occasional brown bag, but you should be mostly developing junior talent at that point, because they don't have the same external opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Over employment if you’re remote, get a second job paying 100k that doesn’t take too much of your time

[Anonymous]

Some good advice in the past few threads.

* mentor junior talent. Not so visible, but you will learn more about yourself and your own philosophies and values by teaching them to others and getting their feedback. Very satisfying.
* find your tech passion; find other people in disparate parts of the company, band together, and drive change across the enterprise. Difficult to accomplish, but highly visible and rewarding.
* find out what your company’s path to people management is (many of the better companies have leadership/management development programs).
* become a tech lead on a big project and lead it to success, put it on your resume and apply for an external management position.

[Anonymous]

Don't shoot your gift horse in the mouth.

Big tech people have no idea how awful other corporate jobs are, and can't survive them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't shoot your gift horse in the mouth.

Big tech people have no idea how awful other corporate jobs are, and can't survive them.

How are corporate jobs different from big tech, other than just not paying as well?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't shoot your gift horse in the mouth.

Big tech people have no idea how awful other corporate jobs are, and can't survive them.

Big tech is still corporate. "Other" corporate jobs use legacy systems and Sharepoint. Yeah, I wouldn't survive.

[Anonymous]

Government, both fed and state/local

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Government, both fed and state/local

No way. That’s like earning 1/3 what he makes now. Maybe once he’s laid off, but not worth it for now.