Management Material?

As time goes on at work, I’m ending up being more and more of a manager. It’s not a role (or at least a title) I want, and in fact it’s one I’ve actively resisted so far. But with a reorganisation of some of the higher levels – among other things my team now reports to a different director to previously – I’m being pushed more into the management side of things.

I can do the job – I’ve been doing it since Day One in a number of ways – but I still have the occasional wobble about this career progression thing.

Even thinking in terms of career is weird for me. I still prefer the definition of career as “to swerve wildly from side to side” (as in ‘careering downhill’) but there’s a progression in place for me at the moment, and it’s heading down that route.

As it is, my job title is “Lead Developer”, which I’m happy with. If I were to go looking for a new job, anyone seeing that on a CV would know it’s involved some serious team management and project management etc. I don’t want to be a “Manager” though – that’s still a step too far for the moment. I like having my hands in the code, doing the work rather than directing others.  I’m OK at directing the others and knowing where we’re going and what’s coming up, but still it’s all a bit of a leap.

I’m not going to reject the role or the position, it does make sense for where I’m heading. I think I’ll have a “bloody hell” session every so often too though. Them’s the breaks.