Moving into management - tips and strategies?

Originally Posted by bochng0001

Hi,

I'm currently 30, and have been in the workforce for about 5 years (tech industry, technical role). Currently I'd say I'm doing okay for my age, but I've been thinking about my career. I've changed jobs 2 times in the last 1 year and gotten excellent pay jumps (35%, 28%) each time, but now I'm worried about pricing myself out of the market.
I guess most people would agree that being stuck in a technical role means that there would probably be a (fairly low) ceiling in terms of salary and position; what tips would you offer for me to move into management some time in the future? Has anyone ever managed to move into a management position (in a new company) from a non-management one?

Thanks for reading and certainly welcome any advice!

Tech managers in financial institutions pays well but you need to build many non technical skills such as coming up with good strategies, engaging senior management and taking risks to handle new initiatives. Pay for director level will range from $20K (junior) to $30K (senior). This is basic pay and bonus is 4 to 5 months for good performers. I was junior director at 39.

[bochng0001]

Thank you for all the replies in this thread so far. It has been tremendously helpful for someone like me (haven't worked long enough to understand the ins and outs of career advancement).
But I think I've worked long enough to see that if I get stuck in a technical role, I'm not really going to get anywhere from a salary/influence standpoint. So I'm interested in reading and hearing the journeys of people who have made the transition into management from a technical position, and what they did to get there.

Originally Posted by bochng0001

Thank you for all the replies in this thread so far. It has been tremendously helpful for someone like me (haven't worked long enough to understand the ins and outs of career advancement).
But I think I've worked long enough to see that if I get stuck in a technical role, I'm not really going to get anywhere from a salary/influence standpoint. So I'm interested in reading and hearing the journeys of people who have made the transition into management from a technical position, and what they did to get there.

Interesting post. I myself am almost in the same situation as the TS. ~30 years, drawing about the same, interested but don't know what it's like in management.

Just my thoughts. I see management as scalability. One person can only do so much in 9 hours / day. But if you managed 5 people, then you're in charge of the output of 5 * 9 hours / day. Perhaps an idea needs 45 man hours / day to execute, hence a manager who can lead 5 people.

However, in my field of quant fiance, scalability comes in different forms - you can utilize 5 computers to perform a big task, you can increase your investment sizes by allocating more capital. Put differently, more computers and / or more capital achieves the scalability in this domain.

My question to TS: as you are in a technical role, are there opportunities of scalability that doesn't require you to manage people? For example, could you assign more machines to a production line? But I get what you mean. At times, I just wish to interact with people to achieve a goal. Rather than synchronized computers.

I don't know about other companies, but I currently work in a German MNC and honestly the pay is not related to how many people you manage in any way except at the senior levels.

My career track is T1-T8, currently am 32 years old at T3 grade drawing ~14k and I still have all the way up to T8 even if I don't move into management jobs. Management is M1-M5 and as far as I know the salaries are almost parallel, just different skillsets.

Pay and promotion is not about how many people you have under you. I have seen some places a so call manager with 5 people under him drawing less than 10k.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't know about other companies, but I currently work in a German MNC and honestly the pay is not related to how many people you manage in any way except at the senior levels.

My career track is T1-T8, currently am 32 years old at T3 grade drawing ~14k and I still have all the way up to T8 even if I don't move into management jobs. Management is M1-M5 and as far as I know the salaries are almost parallel, just different skillsets.

Pay and promotion is not about how many people you have under you. I have seen some places a so call manager with 5 people under him drawing less than 10k.

thanks for sharing. i notice usually bigger mncs value specialist skills and not afraid to pay big bucks, but local co. still stuck in old mentality where they force people to be manager/director etc. in order to move up.

since ur t3 level already can make 14k i assume ur co. max for specialist should be quite high - ard 40k?

[bochng0001]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I don't know about other companies, but I currently work in a German MNC and honestly the pay is not related to how many people you manage in any way except at the senior levels.

My career track is T1-T8, currently am 32 years old at T3 grade drawing ~14k and I still have all the way up to T8 even if I don't move into management jobs. Management is M1-M5 and as far as I know the salaries are almost parallel, just different skillsets.

Pay and promotion is not about how many people you have under you. I have seen some places a so call manager with 5 people under him drawing less than 10k.

Thanks for sharing.
I presume you're in an engineering position? Your pay is really fantastic and I believe way more than what other engineers would expect to get, not just at 32 but at any age?
I'm in a US tech company and they do pay technical people well (at least compared to local sweatshops), but it's a fact that if you really want to go into the upper echelons in terms of pay and influence, you'd have to go to manager-level or director-level and above (where you're managing people more than doing the dirty work). I don't think it's any different in your company or any other company for that matter?
It's sad that this is the reality (that I seem to be seeing) where technical people, the engines of the company, are valued less than the managers etc but this is how it is, from what I see (e.g. even if you're a technical guru at the top of your game, you still have to bow down to the wishes of the upper management anyway).

Originally Posted by bochng0001

Thanks for sharing.
I presume you're in an engineering position? Your pay is really fantastic and I believe way more than what other engineers would expect to get, not just at 32 but at any age?
I'm in a US tech company and they do pay technical people well (at least compared to local sweatshops), but it's a fact that if you really want to go into the upper echelons in terms of pay and influence, you'd have to go to manager-level or director-level and above (where you're managing people more than doing the dirty work). I don't think it's any different in your company or any other company for that matter?
It's sad that this is the reality (that I seem to be seeing) where technical people, the engines of the company, are valued less than the managers etc but this is how it is, from what I see (e.g. even if you're a technical guru at the top of your game, you still have to bow down to the wishes of the upper management anyway).

I mainly do research & testing in the carbon composite space. I can't speak for your company, but what you say does not apply to my company at least.

Over here we have very clearly defined technical career track and the pay is as high as any director or vp. Principal subject matter specialists (T5/T6 level) especially those with deep exposure are paid easily 30k - 40k, though they mange 3-4 specialist below. I don't think that is in any way inferior to a typical director who can have hundreds or thousands below him.

As for bowing down, not in my case. We simply collaborate with the business managers and offer them advice accordingly, it is not a matter of who bowing down to who. Sometimes I get my way, sometimes I compromise with other business leaders.

[bochng0001]

Thanks a lot for that interesting insight. I guess it doesn't apply to my company or industry as it's pretty clear that management-level folks have a lot more influence and command much higher salaries. So I'm still looking for a role model in that regard whom I can really learn from, as I'm pretty lost at the moment. I don't mind buying you a coffee or a beer if it's something you'd prefer to share in person