I'm no manager...oh, wait a minute....
As much as I've been in denial....yes, I can now admit I have a problem...
..and that problem is that I've un-expectedly been moving into senior-management.
I don't know how it happened, one-day I was happily skipping along, enjoying myself, gorging on all the new technology, new projects, new clients, new colleagues, life was awesome, it was great...and then slowly but surely as the projects started to change, the people started to change, the tasks I was 'expected' to do changed, there was more emphasis on planning, resourcing, organising, 'getting the right people' and it became less about myself being hands-on, physically making solutions to the problems....and then one day last week I was sitting at a meal with the latest project team and a work colleague turned and said to me, "So, how do I become a senior manager like you?".
That stumped me. I'm not a senior manager, am I? I'm still (mentally at least) young and driven to solve problems for clients, I keep very up to date with the latest technologies, whilst keeping in mind all those lessons we've learnt since the ...... wait, hang on a minute, maybe they were right. I've blindly walked, or been coerced into morphing into having a 'leadership' role. A 'senior' role.
Have I been put out to pasture? am I no longer relevant? Will I only be considered for the most dreaded role that I can think of?....The 'PM' role?...or even worse, I become pushed away from hands-on and start to become a 'Business Development' manager, which is a slippery slope to becoming a 'Tech Sales' person... the horror! what has happened? when did the Matrix change for me?
.......after a much needed PS4 Wolfenstein nazi killing session on a late Saturday night, it then dawned on me. The thing that has changed is Time. I've become older. I don't feel it.
Okay, that's a little white lie, there are subtle reminders after working on the cars that I'm not 20 anymore, but mentally I've still very sharp and think of solutions to things that a lot of people in IT haven't even created the neural pathways in their heads to deal with yet. Apparently, I'm a bit odd like that, according to my missus. She also tells me on a regular basis that, 'You are not normal', but I brush that aside as her helpful way of keeping my ego in check.
Thinking about it now, I like making things, I still make things, I find time to make things, I perhaps do things that other people only think about and never 'find the time' to action on, due to either having too many meetings in a day/week, having children that become the priority of life or doing other stuff, even if that other stuff is 'zombi-ing out in-front of the TV to clear the mind'.
I look about me now, I have in my home/work office#1 (#2 is the garage - get to that later), 5 x 3/4 built robots with a multitude of sensors and electronics wired up to them that are constantly evolving as new things/electronics/software is released, hence always 3/4s finished. They originally had wi-fi built into them that allowed them to be controlled from a UI that was served up from a web server (nginx/php) that evolved into (nginx/python) and then into (nodejs/javascript) - that was fine for while, then I evolved that to be Voice controlled, now incorporating the latest Speech To Text (STT) capturing and analysis services, followed by using Natural Language Understanding (NLU) services to understand what was said and then Text to Speech (TTS) services to pass back any verbal feedback to the robot to inform me that I'm stupid for asking the robot to 'jump'. But, then also depending upon the response, action some event like controlling servo's, camera's, motor's for wheels... etc...
I have a 3/4 finished old fashioned wooden model boat, I have all the electronics for it, the electric engines, the remote control kit, the works...why is it not finished? Because I want the boat to be autonomous - I want to fit it out with the latest sensors / camera's and kit that will enable it to be 'Cloud enabled'. I want it to be running the latest TensorFlow hardware so that I can do motion / visual recognition - just like they have in cars. I want the boat to be able to understand the objects around it and its surroundings and make decisions based on that information. But to do that I need to use Visual Recognition services, I need data, I need a model to be trained from that data so that there is understanding. Once I have that external setup complete, then I'll put the boat together to achieve that goal. Then I'll put it on the pond and test it out, fixes a few issues no doubt and then take it out to larger and larger boating lakes to see how it works in the real world. Then probably put it on the shelf and never touch it again. But, the experience and lessons learnt will accumulate together and build into the every growing knowledge of experience.
(I recall a quote from a manager I once worked with, 'remember you are mostly an accumulation of the information shared from all the people you've ever met in the world. remember to add your own content and share with others. you could inspire the next Einstein'. funny that has always stuck in my head, but not consciously)
I have 3/4 finished and some finished cars/vehicles in the garage (home/work office #2), again, they are just larger versions of the robots / boats if I'm honest. They are play toys. The are different levels of engineering. What is fine for a little robot, what I would call "cardboard design", now has to be "steel design". ie. cardboard is great for PoC, but for Production you need steel. There are different scales of requirements. For instance, if I do something wrong with the robot, I can just switch it off and debug it and figure out the problem. If I do that with one of my custom cars, I run the risk of death, mine or worse someone else. Therefore, the responsibility of what you're doing needs more focus and experience of broad things and more depth in certain areas. This is what you lack when you are younger. You are too gung-ho, not always thinking about the consequences of every single little action. You learn that as you get older (I hope other people do).
Which brings me right back to my initial fear. "Am I now classed as being too old to do the job I want to be doing?"
I would say, 'no'. But I believe the IT industry would disagree with me. Past mid-30s, you are expected to be moving up the career ladder and move into a management role, it's the time for you to get that work/life balance set as you are expected to have kids and you can no longer 'keep up with the youngsters, so why fight it?', you then basically just become Admin, you arrange meetings, you get stuff sorted that helps the others actually get the job done to delivery the thing that the client needs. In my view, you 'give up'. Don't believe me? Ask how many people that you meet, who are over 45, if they 'used to work in IT?', you'll get a lot of 'yes' responses, there will be a lot of 'no, I'm still working away'. But they'll not be doing what they enjoyed doing, what led them into the industry int he first place, the thing that they were good at....I've met a lot of people who now do 'something else'.
I also just read this great article, which made me smile. He's just hitting 40 and finding this issue.
..and that problem is that I've un-expectedly been moving into senior-management.
I don't know how it happened, one-day I was happily skipping along, enjoying myself, gorging on all the new technology, new projects, new clients, new colleagues, life was awesome, it was great...and then slowly but surely as the projects started to change, the people started to change, the tasks I was 'expected' to do changed, there was more emphasis on planning, resourcing, organising, 'getting the right people' and it became less about myself being hands-on, physically making solutions to the problems....and then one day last week I was sitting at a meal with the latest project team and a work colleague turned and said to me, "So, how do I become a senior manager like you?".
That stumped me. I'm not a senior manager, am I? I'm still (mentally at least) young and driven to solve problems for clients, I keep very up to date with the latest technologies, whilst keeping in mind all those lessons we've learnt since the ...... wait, hang on a minute, maybe they were right. I've blindly walked, or been coerced into morphing into having a 'leadership' role. A 'senior' role.
Have I been put out to pasture? am I no longer relevant? Will I only be considered for the most dreaded role that I can think of?....The 'PM' role?...or even worse, I become pushed away from hands-on and start to become a 'Business Development' manager, which is a slippery slope to becoming a 'Tech Sales' person... the horror! what has happened? when did the Matrix change for me?
.......after a much needed PS4 Wolfenstein nazi killing session on a late Saturday night, it then dawned on me. The thing that has changed is Time. I've become older. I don't feel it.
Okay, that's a little white lie, there are subtle reminders after working on the cars that I'm not 20 anymore, but mentally I've still very sharp and think of solutions to things that a lot of people in IT haven't even created the neural pathways in their heads to deal with yet. Apparently, I'm a bit odd like that, according to my missus. She also tells me on a regular basis that, 'You are not normal', but I brush that aside as her helpful way of keeping my ego in check.
Thinking about it now, I like making things, I still make things, I find time to make things, I perhaps do things that other people only think about and never 'find the time' to action on, due to either having too many meetings in a day/week, having children that become the priority of life or doing other stuff, even if that other stuff is 'zombi-ing out in-front of the TV to clear the mind'.
I look about me now, I have in my home/work office#1 (#2 is the garage - get to that later), 5 x 3/4 built robots with a multitude of sensors and electronics wired up to them that are constantly evolving as new things/electronics/software is released, hence always 3/4s finished. They originally had wi-fi built into them that allowed them to be controlled from a UI that was served up from a web server (nginx/php) that evolved into (nginx/python) and then into (nodejs/javascript) - that was fine for while, then I evolved that to be Voice controlled, now incorporating the latest Speech To Text (STT) capturing and analysis services, followed by using Natural Language Understanding (NLU) services to understand what was said and then Text to Speech (TTS) services to pass back any verbal feedback to the robot to inform me that I'm stupid for asking the robot to 'jump'. But, then also depending upon the response, action some event like controlling servo's, camera's, motor's for wheels... etc...
I have a 3/4 finished old fashioned wooden model boat, I have all the electronics for it, the electric engines, the remote control kit, the works...why is it not finished? Because I want the boat to be autonomous - I want to fit it out with the latest sensors / camera's and kit that will enable it to be 'Cloud enabled'. I want it to be running the latest TensorFlow hardware so that I can do motion / visual recognition - just like they have in cars. I want the boat to be able to understand the objects around it and its surroundings and make decisions based on that information. But to do that I need to use Visual Recognition services, I need data, I need a model to be trained from that data so that there is understanding. Once I have that external setup complete, then I'll put the boat together to achieve that goal. Then I'll put it on the pond and test it out, fixes a few issues no doubt and then take it out to larger and larger boating lakes to see how it works in the real world. Then probably put it on the shelf and never touch it again. But, the experience and lessons learnt will accumulate together and build into the every growing knowledge of experience.
(I recall a quote from a manager I once worked with, 'remember you are mostly an accumulation of the information shared from all the people you've ever met in the world. remember to add your own content and share with others. you could inspire the next Einstein'. funny that has always stuck in my head, but not consciously)
I have 3/4 finished and some finished cars/vehicles in the garage (home/work office #2), again, they are just larger versions of the robots / boats if I'm honest. They are play toys. The are different levels of engineering. What is fine for a little robot, what I would call "cardboard design", now has to be "steel design". ie. cardboard is great for PoC, but for Production you need steel. There are different scales of requirements. For instance, if I do something wrong with the robot, I can just switch it off and debug it and figure out the problem. If I do that with one of my custom cars, I run the risk of death, mine or worse someone else. Therefore, the responsibility of what you're doing needs more focus and experience of broad things and more depth in certain areas. This is what you lack when you are younger. You are too gung-ho, not always thinking about the consequences of every single little action. You learn that as you get older (I hope other people do).
Which brings me right back to my initial fear. "Am I now classed as being too old to do the job I want to be doing?"
I would say, 'no'. But I believe the IT industry would disagree with me. Past mid-30s, you are expected to be moving up the career ladder and move into a management role, it's the time for you to get that work/life balance set as you are expected to have kids and you can no longer 'keep up with the youngsters, so why fight it?', you then basically just become Admin, you arrange meetings, you get stuff sorted that helps the others actually get the job done to delivery the thing that the client needs. In my view, you 'give up'. Don't believe me? Ask how many people that you meet, who are over 45, if they 'used to work in IT?', you'll get a lot of 'yes' responses, there will be a lot of 'no, I'm still working away'. But they'll not be doing what they enjoyed doing, what led them into the industry int he first place, the thing that they were good at....I've met a lot of people who now do 'something else'.
I also just read this great article, which made me smile. He's just hitting 40 and finding this issue.
Ctrl-Alt-Delete: The Planned Obsolescence of Old Coders
Right, I've now got to go and make a 3-minute video about why I believe "AI is not magic"......
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