HACKER Q&A
📣 killjoywashere

Directors and above, why did you decide to play in the game of thrones?


I'm in my mid-40s and my next job is likely pivotal: I'll either decide to be an individual contributor in my field (and manage a couple small teams on the side), or start senior management type positions (managing relationships between larger teams of teams across the enterprise, possibly including a couple of my own small teams, or even go found a company). Either choice comes with opportunity cost. To go the IC route, I'm likely renouncing a lot of opportunities that presently exist. To go the senior management route, I'm likely walking away from my subspecialist skill set to a degree that it may be hard to go back to an IC role later.

Intuitively, the IC role is "safer". I know what I can do, and I can grind it out for another 20 years and, retire, and leave my kids a couple properties. The senior management role seems riskier to me. Press, internal politics, external politics. None of which is guaranteed to fall in my favor. I have led before (up to 53 people). I've seen the C suite interactions enough (I was an EA for a couple years) to know there's a bunch of it that comes down to high school level politics and the vagaries of scheduling. Why would I give up hard science research and clinical impact to play high school politics?

That's genuinely the question: why did you do it?

  👤 smarri Accepted Answer ✓
In my career so far I've found the money to be better. However the pressure can be immense and I often find myself debating if it's worth it or not. I've been leaning towards the latter for some time, yet I stick it out.
👤 klausbreyer
for me it was the other way around. i founded a company right after my studies. then again. always up to an average size of 25 or 40 employees. then i found it simply too exhausting to have to discuss with my co-founders or investors. high school politics sums it up quite well. maybe we were all too young (under 30).

in any case, halfway through my professional life, i was more committed to a freelance career. either leading small teams where you have a direct impact. or just being a mentor, giving tips, and then leaving the responsibility to the others. everything in between, having responsibility but not being able to do it yourself because the constraints are not in your own area, i realized, i can't handle.

and freelance you have the possibility to do something solo / indie on the side, also build something with recurring revenue.

but very very good question. thanks for the thread. i always and regularly ask myself if i did the right thing. i always flirt with management positions when i think of the prestige. (almost more than the salaries). but then i remember that it was a conscious decision.

good books i can recommend:

So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World ... The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living ... (I really learned through this to make values-based decisions)