overshoot, or stay in the safe zone?
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
A lead is someone who tells other people what to do, the big difference to a senior dev in my mind, is the ability to work with people. If you have good people skills, I'd say go for it. If you're the sort who just calls people stupid if they don't code in a style you like, and who likes to be holed up by themselves coding all day, it may not be a good fit.
Christian Graus No longer a Microsoft MVP, but still happy to answer your questions.
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
I'll second the people skills, and add one more. Not to scare you off or anything. Are you prepared for the tough call as well as the good one? Most people think of leading developers as handing them the assignment and thanking them for a good job. But what do you do when you get the one bad apple? Can you push him to do the job? what if he cannot or will not? even if someone else does the job of hiring and firing, your recommendation can mean just that. I scared myself away from management 20 years ago when the DP manager was caught monkeying with the books (probably from more incompetance than theft, turns out almost everything about him was a lie, so who really knows?). I took over the job for 6 months, hired my replacement for programming, and fired him, and took the job back and handed over the reigns of management to someone else. I was too young to deal with that then. Now, it is easier, somewhat. Though I don't have the people skills, I have toughened up a bit. :) who knows? my people skills are improving. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
Typically, a tech lead is also a developer. If you have decent dev skills, and you don't work out as tech lead, they'll probably keep you anyway.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
In the real world, a "technical lead" (or any other variation on the theme) is the equivalent of having two jobs for one salary. You get new duties that often involve administrative paper pushing to one degree or another, but your deadlines don't go away and you're still expected to maintain a 100% developer job. Plus somehow find time for all that "lead" stuff. Additionally, while positions of this sort come with responsbilities, i.e. you're the guy in the line of fire when things don't go right, you'll find that with this responsibility comes zero authority. You can take the blame for whatever (or whoever) screws up, but you don't have the ability to do anything beyond complaining reporting it to whoever does have the authority. And you can guess how much that usually accomplishes. If you're going to go for management, go for management. If you want to be a geek, be a geek. If you try to straddle the fence, you're going to end up with the worst of both worlds. Yeah, I know. "Technical Lead" sounds like it's completely geeky, but remember - when you buy a used car, they rarely go out of their way to tell you that underneath that new carpet, the floorboard is rusted out. I could have gone the management route, to be sure (remember, I did a decade in sales before the last two in tech). However, like most of us, I got into this business because I like programming, so that's what I stayed with. There's no substitute for doing what you love. Oh, and if I didn't directly answer your question, here it is: if you're a coder at heart, stick with the coding gigs. Supervisory positions in the tech industry are the bane of any good geek.
Christopher Duncan Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes www.PracticalUSA.com
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
Personally I'd call them, be honest and ask. From their point of view, they best person for the job - so if they have several vacancies it makes sense to interview and see where you would best fit, rather then pigeon-hole you before interview. This also has the advantage that, if you manage to speak to someone directly involved in the process (rather than some HR lackey) you have an advantage of familiarity at interview.
Take a chill pill, Daddy-o .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
If you work well with others and can get them to buy-in on your ideas and like mentoring I'd say go for it. If you're more likely to throw your ideas out there and expect everyone to just eat em up then I'd say stick with senior development. If the environment and development process is completely broken at said company then being a lead can be more trouble than it's worth.
Todd Smith
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I'll second the people skills, and add one more. Not to scare you off or anything. Are you prepared for the tough call as well as the good one? Most people think of leading developers as handing them the assignment and thanking them for a good job. But what do you do when you get the one bad apple? Can you push him to do the job? what if he cannot or will not? even if someone else does the job of hiring and firing, your recommendation can mean just that. I scared myself away from management 20 years ago when the DP manager was caught monkeying with the books (probably from more incompetance than theft, turns out almost everything about him was a lie, so who really knows?). I took over the job for 6 months, hired my replacement for programming, and fired him, and took the job back and handed over the reigns of management to someone else. I was too young to deal with that then. Now, it is easier, somewhat. Though I don't have the people skills, I have toughened up a bit. :) who knows? my people skills are improving. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
El Corazon wrote:
Though I don't have the people skills
The knack lies in throwing yourself at the ground, .. and miss. Oops, wrong book. :-D Seriously, my trick for having good people skills is just being positive (even in tough times). It looks like it works, but with developers, of course, you can never tell :-)
V.
Stop smoking so you can: Enjoy longer the money you save. Moviereview Archive -
I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
Technical Lead is almost identical to Department Head or Project Manager, but without the authority to actually do anything about the situation or the pay to make the aggravation worthwhile.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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Technical Lead is almost identical to Department Head or Project Manager, but without the authority to actually do anything about the situation or the pay to make the aggravation worthwhile.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
This reply is meant for all of you who responded. Thanks a bunch for the frank advice (which is one reason why Code Project is such a treasure). You have helped me decide to go for senior developer. It could be very foolish to take on Tech Lead in a company I know little about (yeah, you do your research, but you never really know what it's like until you're there in the trenches every day). I am attracted to Tech Lead not so much because I want to get away from development, but because I'm tired of working for incompetent dev leads. I am much better at the planning part of it than most people I've worked for. It's not a lot of fun, but having someone provide clear schedules of what is to be delivered when, who is responsible for what, makes the development part of the job much more pleasant. I hear you all about Tech Leads not having any actual authority, but just having a realistic handle on where things stand, even if you can't change it, can be some help. But I figure if the developer job works out, I'll have a much better idea than I do now on the pitfalls of Tech Lead in their particular environment. Thanks again to all of you!!
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I'm a senior developer looking for work. One company has openings for multiple .Net developers ("all skill levels") and also a position for a .Net Technical Lead. I have never had the title of Technical Lead, although I've certainly done some of it along the way and feel I may be ready to take it on. What's the ramifications of either choice? If I try for the lead, and they decide that I am underqualifed, would I be out of the running for the developer job? How about the opposite situation?
It would probably be best if you only went for the Tech. Lead position if you have confirmed (and confirmable) management and people skills (to be honest, feeling that you "may be ready to take it on" is probably not enough -- leading effectively is a lot more complex than many people like to think, which is why there are so many bad managers who think they're doing a great job). On the other hand, if I interview someone who has skills I need that are not necessarily the ones required for the job applied for, I will suggest that he change his application and try out for the other position (if it's a job I'm also interviewing for, I'll switch the interview immediately; if not, I'll arrange an interview with the responsible party). I think that most people would do the same, so don't be afraid to extend your reach if you're sure enough that you have the skills.
