Tyler made a good post about his transition to a manager role, and how it suits him. I like that he's able to see the connection between what he likes and what satisfies him in his professional role. Naturally, I think about this sort of thing a great deal, and have been thinking about it a lot in the last year. Hopefully, I'm taking action now that fits with the thought process.
The manager thing seems like an obvious outcome of any advancing career. For me, things really happened in reverse. My first professional job (post-radio) had me managing a city department, with a budget and employees. What was so great about it is that I also got to do on-the-ground work. It was a video nerd's dream job, buying and spec'ing equipment, doing production work, on-camera stuff and leading people and processes. For being as immature as any early 20-something, it was a fantastic opportunity.
When I ditched broadcast for the world of the Internets, I started by managing processes (not really people directly), and from there made the transition to code monkey. At various times doing consulting work, I did hire and manage a few people, but it was never a core responsibility in this industry. Microsoft frustrated me that the path to that role was so hard to get to, even having already been there in previous work. My goal since moving back has been to find something that has a path or components of managing stuff, or more specifically, making people and processes better. It doesn't even require that people report to me in order for it to be satisfying.
Out of the blue, I got a call from a Fortune 100 health insurance and wellness provider from Louisville, and they indicated they were hiring "application consultants." They're people who often work remotely in a great many capacities on various projects. At first, I was just interested because it was a pants-optional work environment, and I know many people who find that work appealing. They were doing a speed dating interview thing, with eight candidates rotating through eight groups to see if there were any good matches. Of course, when someone offers to fly you somewhere to interview, you accept.
I wasn't sure how seriously to take it, because I already had a likely offer in play, and another company I just wasn't interested in as I got to know them. I felt like I already had options. When I got there in the typical "interview casual" garb and noticed I was the only one not wearing a suit, I figured it would be a total waste of time and a poor culture match. Fortunately, the interviewers varied a great deal, and were not without jeans, so it wasn't me who had the mismatched expectations.
As it turned out, about half of the people I met with were working on really interesting things. I didn't need this company for work, which was freeing because there was no pressure to dazzle anyone with bullshit. I politely told some of them that I had no interest in what they were doing, and others were straight about me not being a good fit. It was surprising how honest the whole thing was, and not at all what I expected, in a good way. Looking around the room, there were very obviously many degrees of corporate culture, much as there were for Microsoft, but this felt different.
A week later, I talked to one of the hiring managers that I didn't think would be a great fit, and he made a very good pitch about why I would actually be a good fit. The role he pushed had a broad spectrum of responsibility that was only partly based in code, and heavily based in improving processes. Those are the kinds of challenges I'm into. Being a ring leader to make stuff better is fun to me. While he made a great pitch, I didn't expect that the money would be right, so I kind of let it go.
Two weeks pass, and just after Christmas and the accident, I get the call with an offer. If not having to commute felt like an interesting perk before, it felt like divine intervention after a random moron tried to kill my family with their truck. With lunches at home and no driving, it would be like getting back two hours every day. Not counting vacations, it was like recovering three weeks of my life every year. I had to seriously consider it. It was also Seattle money with lots of time off.
In the end, I took the job, even though telling them yes meant I had to tell another set of people who were very good to me no. It was a very difficult decision. However, this company has an HR mentality that seems genuinely interested in getting the most of its people and giving them room to grow. They don't keep you in a position for arbitrary amounts of time, and they want you to succeed in whatever place makes the most sense. It's doesn't seem stuck in rigid career models. It felt like I could have a future, even if I don't know what that is. As a relatively new dad, you can imagine that stability is more important to me than it used to be.
Working from home means setting up the spare room as an office, which is fine. I know enough remote workers to understand how to do it, with the right boundaries and rules to keep life balanced. Diana is fully supportive as well, understanding that when I'm working, I'm not home. The trade-off is the lack of in-person social interaction, but it means I'll have to double up on lunches and dinners with friends. The social thing depends entirely on who you work with anyway. My first group at MSFT yielded many BFF's, while the second was full of people I had no social connection to.
I'm looking forward to something new. This wasn't something I expected at all. The salary and benefits were better than expected, and frankly there are a lot of lifestyle changes that are easier to maintain when you aren't rushing off to beat traffic or get a good parking space. I'm glad I didn't settle for something crappy. Fingers crossed that this is a worthwhile adventure.
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