I had one hell of a run. I was part of some successful ventures and some that were doomed from the start. I was at times innovative and creative, but catastrophically tunnel-visioned at others. I could solve a labyrinth of logic one day and then get completely stuck on the most mundane detail the next. I was on time and under budget, except when I was neither. It was beautiful and agonizing.
I was a developer. I loved to build.
For the past 20 years I have lived in a world made of zeroes and ones. I love that world. There are new technologies and patterns to chase around every corner. There are moments in that world when you wake from a dead sleep with the answer to a riddle you’ve been playing in your head for days. That world is the relentless pursuit of an elegant solution. Who would want to leave that life?
I left that life. I’m a Director now.
I work for a pretty talented professional services company, so as the Director of Engineering, I can’t just turn those zeroes and ones off completely. I can still throw down with anybody from a technical standpoint, but I don’t have too many of those mind-bending coding marathons in my future. The simple acknowledgement of that is a bit painful. For the majority of my professional career, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to be a “manager”. I liked being very technical, I wanted to be part of a team, and I wanted to be very hands on. I thought a management track would be the death of that life. From my perspective, the next logical rung on the ladder was either Architect or Leadership, but I was so happy collaborating with clients, fixing bugs and solving problems, and all of that good stuff. I was going to have to give up all of that, right? Wrong.
I’m a Director now. I need to build.
When I took over the engineering team at CodeScience, our team was already stacked. We were building products and tackling problems on the Salesforce platform that few other shops could compete with. We were innovative, but we were solid, and we produced. (I think we built 17+ apps for the AppExchange in 2015). Last January when I took over the group, we had 8 members on the engineering team. We now have 23 members and looking to add more. That is almost 200% growth in 12 months. I had new labyrinths of logic to solve now, most of them revolving around:
“How do we get the best people?”
“How do we maintain quality, but foster growth?”
“How do we stay innovative, but focus on delivering business value?”
I was an engineer again — with a new system to build.
I’m a servant. I’m building.
What became great about building this new system is that I was designing it for the people I loved working with as a peer. I viewed it as a great opportunity to build the kind of environment I always wanted to work in. “Work with really smart people. Work on really challenging products. Give me the freedom to be me.” That’s the environment we have tried to build at CodeScience. I am very fortunate we have a collaborative, transparent and trusting leadership group that has been supportive of the moves we made on the engineering side. Our growth wouldn’t have been possible without them and their guidance. You will need that kind of support when you start implementing new hiring, onboarding, training, capacity planning, quality, innovation, and execution processes. The calculus is different in these systems, but the output of the equation is the same. Attract fantastic people. Give them the best job they ever had. I’m still pursuing the elegant solution.
I’m a leader. I love it.
Even at my best days in the binary world, I’ve never had a more rewarding job. It takes every bit of the problem-solving capacity as the most technical projects I have run across, but your variables are now people. Have you ever had a really weird variable before? I love them. They are creating their own systems, innovating and building efficiencies, and collaborating with each other. They are the ultimate free radicals. You can’t manage that state, but you can lead it. We are a flock of starlings, and all it takes is the right turn to make something beautiful. That’s where I find my window.focus() now.
If I could impart three words of wisdom to the binary mercenary of my former years, it would be this:
- Absorb everything — You will continue to learn technology all of your life. You are that kind of person, but don’t let that be your limit. Absorb the routines that make the people you admire successful. Absorb how your clients operate, what their business model is and how their teams function. There is wealth of knowledge early in your career that you don’t fully capitalize on until the later stages. Think of it as a 401K for your brain.
- Take ownership — The best people I have ever worked with, and those that I try to hire, have this trait. I’ll take the person that commits to doing something and then delivers it than the technical genius who flakes out on estimates and timelines. I’ve got folks on my team that I can put on any project and know that what they sign-off on is going to get done at a high level. Without these kind of folks (at any position), companies fail. Be an agent of success.
- Your job isn’t to be right, your job is to get things done — Your real world isn’t made up of zeroes and ones, it’s made up of clients. You exist in that world, and your role in it is to create things of value. What you create often times won’t be perfect, but there is a reason you are have been asked to fabricate it. View things through the lens of the client and do things that are in their best interests. You’ll have a career forever.
If I make it to fifty, I’ll post an update.
This story is reposted from Medium.
