Taking the technical route or the Technical Management route [reprinted]

Recently, because I want to give a speech to my new students, I want to write some ideas on topics like career development in the form of a blog, hoping to bring higher quality content to my students. In my article "driving your" workplace brown sports ", Talked about 25 workplace insights and I proposed "taking the technical line or the Technical Management line ?" This question is actually not answered. .   Before officially answering this question, I would like to emphasize the "golden period" of career development ". I think everyone's career development will generally go through the "golden period", "gentle period", "Breakthrough Period", and "recession period", as shown in. It is worth mentioning that the highest degree of career is not how much "officer" you can do, but how deeply you can understand your career.   The "golden period" begins with my graduation from college and ends with the birth of a child. In this period, because there was almost no family burden, we could focus entirely on learning and work. I think the growth height of this period plays an important role in the workplace, so it is called "golden period ". The "Quiet Period" begins with the birth of the child, and the child finally enters the school. During this time, because the child is young and needs a lot of care, it is difficult to allocate energy to learning after work. When a child enters school, we can spend less energy on the Child. At this time, our thoughts become more mature after the passage of time, coupled with the accumulation of the workplace for many years, the knowledge is more summarized and summarized to achieve a completely different level of understanding, so it will enter the "Breakthrough Period ". As we grow older, we will sooner or later enter a "recession" because of the decline in physical strength and intelligence ". The demarcation points of the "Breakthrough Period" and "recession period" cannot be defined based on my current experience, but I believe that is not important.
Due to individual differences, I believe that the duration of each person's Experience varies from time to time, and even disappears from time to time. For example, even if a child is still focused on his career and pays little attention to his family, his "slowdown" may disappear (I do not agree with this approach ).

Back to the topic of this article, I want to emphasize the timing of taking the technical line or the Technical Management line. You must not consider this issue during the golden period! As an engineer, what you need to do during the golden period is to focus on the accumulation of technology, rather than learning the so-called "management ". Of course, I am not saying that engineers should not focus on team cooperation and other issues during this period. This is the basic work content. Otherwise, it is difficult to take a good career path. The only exception to considering non-technical development during the "golden period" is that you discover that you are not a technical material, but willing to deal with people. If this is the case, you can consider transferring to technical support or marketing personnel. If the technology is relatively good and the product is sensitive, you can also become a product manager. I have no idea about these positions. However, the more people I have come into contact with, the more profound the technical accumulation, the more powerful the ability to control the work.

In reality, I have seen many engineers seem to be very "forward-looking", Learning Technology and Management in the "golden period. In my opinion, in the golden period, taking time to learn management knowledge is to some extent overdraft in the future. In fact, the deeper the technology is, the deeper the knowledge in the technology management will be able to deeply understand the true meaning of the technology management. Therefore, if you learn both technology and management in the golden period, it is easy to see that it is difficult to build confidence in the workplace because you have not learned either, once you enter the "slowdown", the more likely you will be confused about your career development. I have seen many colleagues working on the technical management line. They can perceive problems in the team, but cannot see the root cause of the problem. Some even mistakenly use the management method to solve technical problems. In addition, I do not think that the technical management capability can be mastered simply by learning management courses, because the technical management must be based on technical knowledge. Although many technical managers have received a lot of management training, their management capabilities are far-fetched and easy to become a microphone for their superiors, the root cause is that their technical accumulation has not reached a certain level and cannot be managed scientifically based on technical knowledge. Because of my understanding, I wrote the article "Technical sensitivity-essential for grass-roots technical managers. Readers may ask "What is technical knowledge ?", The answer to this question may be "What is life common sense ?" Similar.

After the "golden period", when considering the technical line or management line, you must first ask yourself: "What kind of life do I want to live ?"

According to my work experience with American engineers, the average technical level and professionalism of Chinese engineers are still at a very basic stage (which is at least accurate in the domestic communication industry ). This big environment brings great challenges and uncertainty to technical management. That is to say, as a technical manager, you manage a group of people who are not professional and immature. It is difficult to imagine when your technical sensitivity is not strong. You may assume a technical management role to gain power, but you must take a lot of uncertain risks for the immature team. In fact, you do not really gain power, but gain greater responsibilities, but may not be able to take responsibility! In this situation, you cannot control your work and life in many cases. Is this your desired life?

If you focus on developing the depth and breadth of technology, it will be another world. With the advancement of technology, you can gain respect for solving technical difficulties that cannot be solved by others (such respect will not be the false intention of others ), it is also more likely to think deeply about how to improve your work efficiency and quality through certain technical methods. Once your capabilities reach a certain level, you will not only focus on your "one acre of three pointsLocation", And will gradually extend to focus on the team and organizational efficiency. At that time, you actually learned a lot of technical knowledge. At this time, if you want to take the management line (for example, to realize your technical ideas through the Team), first, it is a matter of course. Second, many managers without technical knowledge cannot compete with you at all. Managers with technical sensitivity will be more calm in the face of immature teams. This journey is more self-confidence and steadfast than helpless!
In my opinion, if there are too many engineers who want to do management for a long time, it is incredible that there will be so many people in the society who want to take public servants. This kind of person looks at the present society on the surface, but he must not see the future. If the development of China's economy requires quality, it must be inseparable from a professional and mature team of high-quality engineers. This phenomenon has nothing to do with today's social conditions, but in such a social environment, impetuous will certainly have no way out!

Whenever I see a car in or out of a residential area or underground garage and the sensor barrier breaks down, I would say, "MD, it's not easy to do this simple thing! Our engineers still have a long way to go ."