Making the jump from a solo programmer to a team leader

Question

Hi, I initially asked on meta.stackoverflow the best place to pitch my question, but the results didn't point to anywhere I was likely to find an answer. Hopefully this is programming related enough.

I would imagine all programmers begin working as part of a team, under an IT manager, or supervisor of some description, and most progress from junior programmer, to programmer, to senior programmer. While I'm only in the middle, I am thinking the next step up is to be a manager of some description. I'd like to be a programmer who not only writes code (or manages architecture) but also manages one or two other programmers.

If you look at most types of jobs and salaries, management and soforth scores the highest by far. It's something I'd enjoy doing and want to progress to.

Is this a realistic and normal progression for someone in IT? Does anyone have any advice relating to this? Do the experienced programmers who've been programming for a few years end up as a manager or progress to such a position?

Answer 1

This is a realistic progression, sure. Normal would be misleading to some extent as some people may go and become specialists within some technology and can get paid quite well in some cases or so I've seen. Not everyone wants to be management and thus there should exist other paths such as getting into architecture or analysis.

There are a couple of different ways I could picture someone becoming a development manager:

1. Internal promotion - This could be that a company is growing and some executive wants someone to take on the role of managing the others or that a manager has left the company wants to fill the void. In either case, the key is getting the executives that would make the decision to see someone's potential and get that spot.

2. Change companies - Now this can be tricky as you may have to show a track record of having lead others in the past, which could mean being a team lead in past projects or leading a team of volunteers that may work too. In this case, the key is to know what the company wants and deliver the goods. Easier said than done probably but this is the harder route to my mind as I'm not sure where IT management positions would be listed that often.

As for your last question, my simple answer would be no. I've been a web developer for 12 years and have yet to ever be a manager. Now, some of that may be by choice that I don't want to throw my hat into the ring at times since where I work now we are on our 3rd team lead in just under 3 years but I never applied for that potsition. I'd imagine there may be other programmers that have more drive and ambition that do wind up as managers but I wouldn't say that all or even most programmers get there.

Answer 2

This kind of thing depends entirely on your personal employment situation. If you're part of a large company, then they have an advancement path and you can learn it from a suitable local mentor. If you're in a small company, then you'll probably have to pitch the case to the powers that be that it's time you took on more of a leadership role. (How to do that is left as an exercise.) And, of course, you can always look in the rest of the market. Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics or one of those Software Development Magazine salary survey things and see where you stand in terms of experience, education, qualifications, pay, and responsibility. If it's out of whack, at least you have data to support your position.

If what you crave is power, you probably shouldn't have it. But if you're trying to increase your ability to add value to the economy (and profit from it) then don't forget that there are a lot more managers than there are technical managers in the world. You go get yourself qualified to organize production at the scale of a few people, and you should be able to break into management. (How to get qualified is also left as an exercise.)