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How do I get out of power?

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fourfathom:
The discussion below probably doesn't help the OP with his question, but I do think that it's worthwhile for engineers at any stage of their career ponder these issues:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on September 26, 2020, 03:18:09 pm ---I'm not suggesting conspiracy, merely the usual corporate incompetence. You get an engineer that's good enough that you want to promote. The only promotion opportunities you offer are (to a lesser or greater extent) managerial rather than engineering. There are several possible outcomes:

* The engineer doesn't want to be a manager, so you lose them to a competitor who has senior real engineering positions available (Failure)
* The engineer is prepared to be, or wants to be, a manager:

* You gain a good manager, but lose a good engineer to your own management (Partial success/Partial failure)
* You gain a lousy manager, and lose a good engineer to your own management (Failure)So crudely* you have a  66% chance of a complete failure, and 33% of partial failure/partial success, collected as totals that's 79% failure and 16% success.. None of the outcomes are purely favourable to you.
--- End quote ---

I know you're simplifying to illustrate a point, but it is a rather two-dimensional simplification.  Management doesn't necessarily mean giving up engineering, but it does to tend to shift your work from the details stuff towards the big picture view.  In many companies, an engineer who moves into management is extremely valuable.  You may be responsible for a team of engineers and technicians, providing them technical guidance and helping shape the entire development process.  This is something that a pure manager (MBA, etc) will not excel at.

At my last start-up I took the title of "Director of Systems Engineering" because it needed to be done.  I managed a group of very talented and motivated engineers, and at the same time I was responsible for many of the architectural decisions, as well as doing some detail design work in areas where I was somewhat of an expert.  This was extremely fulfilling and I learned a lot in the process.  This gave me insights into the business-end of the company and industry that I would have never had if I had remained a pure engineer.  I wasn't a great manager, but good enough as long as the team was small and motivated.  As we grew, I gradually shifted out of management and more into an architect and troubleshooter role.  I would have become a poor non-technical manager, I knew that and so did everyone else, so I steered clear of that path and everyone was happy.

So, all you young'uns out there, don't think of it as an "either/or" situation.  Depending on the situation you may be able to have both.  This won't happen in the early stages of your career, but once you have gained some experience you may see some opportunities.

CatalinaWOW:
Your problem is almost a mirror of what I thought mine was when I graduated.  I had spent two summers interning in the power field, and for reasons that are not very good thought that I wanted a career in power.  Turns out they didn't want me.  So I was looking for a job in a year when engineers weren't in too high a demand.

In interviews I emphasized my hobby experience and education that applied to the problems at the companies I was talking with.  And got two offers from companies in wildly different fields.  Went with one of them, and as others have said, the career went where it needed to go.  Not into a particular pigeon hole.

As long as you keep your mind limber you should do fine.

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: fourfathom on September 27, 2020, 01:16:45 am ---I know you're simplifying to illustrate a point, but it is a rather two-dimensional simplification.

--- End quote ---

Yes, it is. I'm merely trying to illustrate the stupidity of not having a path for career advancement for the folks who want to keep doing pure engineering, or are only suited to doing pure engineering, and the huge advantages from a corporate point of view to making such a path available. Putting numbers on that is always going to be crude and a blunt tool, and there's always a more nuanced discussion to be had about it.

So I'm not saying that engineering management is a bad thing per se, or that it's necessarily incompatible with still doing actual engineering too. As it happens, all the full time jobs I've had since around '96 have been something that boils down to something like "Head of Engineering" for the companies I worked at (I do freelance work nowadays) and "<something> Manager" for the previous 5 years. In fact the more senior you are (in general management terms) the more discretion you generally have to make your job what you want it to be. Personally, as a big fan of "managing by walking around", I've never suffered from a shortage of real engineering problems to solve as you tend to trip over them if you visit the 'coal face' regularly (you also find the flaws in your own, oh-so-elegant, architectural decisions that you've handed down ex-cathedra). It's the early-mid career engineering management positions that some people, in some companies, may find that they get too much administrative work, spend way too much time in meetings and get too little engineering to do - but it very much depends on the company you work for.

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