I am in the market for better job. I have this question for career gurus.
When you are in a technical interview, and are asked what career stream would like to take with the company in the near future - programming, development, quality assurance or project management, what are they really asking?
I have been asked this question time and again. Interview seems to be going fine, but then this is almost the last question in almost every interview. I mostly reply that I would like to stay in technical role, their face expression changes. Why? I fail to understand.
The the reason is that they expect you to grow out of your technical role and move into general management over a period of time. This involves planning, budgeting, man management and POLITICKING also. Remember your IQ gets you the job; BUT EQ helps you to grow,
Nobody wants a monitor attached NERD to be the BOSS but a person who can motivate subordinates, kiss upto top bosses and network with other functions.
Hence to summarize always look beyond your job, plan to do a MBA and get an industry perspective and always look for Career option than just a job.
Always have a short term (0 to 3 years)/medium term (5-10 years)/ and a long term (10-20 years) career plan. Typically in an Indian/USA situation you finish your graduation at around 22 years and a MBA by 24 years of age. Then you enter an organization and build your career so that you become a manager between the ages of 28 to 35 years; you should be a General Manager by 38 to 40 years and you should be the President/Director of your company by 45 in age. If you do not reach these land mark in your career you've missed the boat. After the age of 45 you would be an also ran, over looked and micro managed by a young MBA. This leads to lot of frustration.
I'm unable to give you a true picture about the Canadian situation and may be a CD who has grown through the ranks in Canadian system could add his/her 2 cents.
It used to be that in organization which are non - IT the operations or the Marketing guys reached the top job. Off late we find Finance guys are reaching the top slot. I wish and hope to see an IT guy who would grow through the ranks in a non-IT company and reach the pinnacle.
If you closely observe the top slots in a many top notch organizations globally you would find that the slots are occupied by non-technical guys who have BA degrees in political science or even arts. They are up there because they have top notch man management skills and also have an aptitude for Visioning. The aptitude/skill for having an understanding for the industry and then having a vision is what sets us apart from them. They know what is the next big thing in the industry and take the gamble on it. They have the ability to sell it to their board of directors and also to their stock holders so that they can get managers and techies like us to slog and get the job done. Another ability of successful top bosses is to sort out relevant information from a whole sea of redundant information in a quick manner and take informed decisions. They do not need to know the difference between Windows XP and Vista. But they know whom to entrust the job and get the job done in a timely manner.
Good Luck on your endeavour !.
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Speech by Thomas Friedman of The New York Times....
"When we were young kids growing up in America, we were told to eat our
vegetables at dinner and not leave them. Mothers said, 'think of the
starving children in India and finish the dinner.' And now I tell my
children: 'Finish your maths homework. Think of the children in India
who would make you starve, if you don't.'"
rinky:
They should not be making faces when you say what you said. Every individual has different aspirations. And there are always ways to work towards it.
In your situation, and I don't know what exactly you said, but you could have demonstrated some kind of an ambition in what you wished to do even staying in the technical field. You can throw questions back at them asking them what growth oppurtunities they offer for the techincally inclined.
In my company for example, there are two routes you can take. One in the management route. The other is the technical route which leads you up the Senior Technical Consultant, Senior Technical Architect path.
So essentially, you need to let them know that you DO wish to grow as a resource.
Quote:
Originally posted by shankaracharya
Always have a short term (0 to 3 years)/medium term (5-10 years)/ and a long term (10-20 years) career plan. Typically in an Indian/USA situation you finish your graduation at around 22 years and a MBA by 24 years of age. Then you enter an organization and build your career so that you become a manager between the ages of 28 to 35 years; you should be a General Manager by 38 to 40 years and you should be the President/Director of your company by 45 in age. If you do not reach these land mark in your career you've missed the boat.
Ummm...I strongly disagree with your "missed the boat" remark. You are talking about a Utopian world. What percentage actually accomplish your roadmap? Not the majority...either due to circumstances or due to individual capabilities or due to personal choices.
Quote:
Originally posted by shankaracharya
After the age of 45 you would be an also ran, over looked and micro managed by a young MBA. This leads to lot of frustration.
Perhaps, but if it is decision one made, then one should be okay with it. I have colleagues over the age of 50 managed by a dude in his early 30s. They are fine with it. It depends on your manager. Age isn't a factor when you have bosses like then one you describe.
Location: Mississauga/ Toronto, Can
Posted on: 24-03-07 15:23:24
With due respect, I would really bed to differ here.
I would rather say, you should follow what YOU aspire to be and enjoy doing and be able to justify and hence convince the interviewer about your answer. Trust me, a pure techie who does not enjoy man management will suck at it in any case.
It is not that they expect you to be in one stream or the other (at least in most companies). No, it is not that. Mind you in India, that is the natural growth path, and whether you like it or not you are forced to get into management, if you want to climb the corporate ladder.
What your interviewer wants to see is if you are clear about what you want and if you can convince them about it. I have seen people retiring as pure technical folks here in Canada (mind you this is unheard of in India) and that is by choice. The bigger companies have distinct career paths - one for management streams and the other for pure technical folks - the choice more often than not, is yours to make.
And to close, good luck in your interview.
Trinity
Quote:
Originally posted by Trinity
With due respect, I would really bed to differ here.
I would rather say, you should follow what YOU aspire to be and enjoy doing and be able to justify and hence convince the interviewer about your answer. Trust me, a pure techie who does not enjoy man management will suck at it in any case. Trinity
I totally Agree here. As a Technical Person I know what you are talking about. Its all upto individual choice. Now Corporates have their own philosophy as well. If Company wants Individual to grow out of current position to Management Role then they definitely will reject persons like me and you.
Normally IT Company will keep Techie & Management Stream seperate. 10 Years in Technology and person is already Guiding, Training and Building Teams.
Quote:
When you are in a technical interview, and are asked what career stream would like to take with the company in the near future - programming, development, quality assurance or project management, what are they really asking?
I have been asked this question time and again. Interview seems to be going fine, but then this is almost the last question in almost every interview. I mostly reply that I would like to stay in technical role, their face expression changes. Why? I fail to understand.
I think they might just want to gauge your ambition. If it is in line with the strategy or not. Rather than thinking about their expectations - I have always put across my thoughts. Now I don't know why would they make faces. I must add also that I have not got through all the Interviews.
Questions I hate most are Behavioral.
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Mumbai Maazi Ladki ...
What positions did you apply for ? If they were technical , that shd be fine . But if they had beyond technical requirements , then your career path would not meet the job requirements at a later stage . This could be perhaps the eye brow raiser.
Remember staffing is a major expense and the employer ensures that the person stays for some time by assuring that the personal objectives coincide with the corporate objective.
Being technical / managerial is by personal choice and may change later also as an objective .Quite a good no. of techies grow out of coding and want to move to managerial roles . Some dont and its their call. Nothing wrong in that either.
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Fido.
I normally reply that long term plans depends on the needs of the candidate as well as the plan that his peers have outlined for him.
Realisticially the boss has to have a sucession plan for the employee after the pilot performace review has been done. (which in my compay is there but total BS).We even have to get into activities like (job shadowing, whereby we do similar activities as my boss ) to learn their roles.
I used to have similar views like Mr Shankaracharya that we need to do this by age and then that position by that age.I have realised that at least in manufacturing / engineering in Canada a clerk may earn significantly more and have greater influence in the organisation than a P Engg with 15 years proferssional experience.Unfortunately this is what I have seen in Canada and we have more Yes Sirs out here than even government companies back home.That has been my experience!!!
