It is indeed frustrating, Matt. I'm in a similar boat, though maybe the next step up. I took an architect position 7 years ago, and through several re-orgs am finding myself nearly approaching the keyboard monkey level again. Our team of architects at my current company are not valued as being able to design anything or solve any problems, and it's extraordinarily demoralizing. In my case, it's not so much keyboarding / coding -- I'm an "infrastructure engineer", so I work with hardware, performance and capacity management, data center design, etc. I have started looking for other opportunities to advance outside my employer, since within the company there's virtually no chance of promotion to director level positions.
The challenge for these higher level positions seems to be that my old recruiter contacts aren't much help, because they are generally looking for people to fill positions that are requesting 3-5 years of experience, or at the very least under 10, for contract positions that are essentially keyboard monkeys of one sort or another. 20+ years of experience really requires a full time position that's a direct-hire with a company. I can say that the managers at my company make plenty of technical decisions. Unfortunately, they're usually the wrong ones! :) Of course, my other challenge is that while I live in the NY metro area, I don't live in the *NY* area, and I'm far enough that commuting isn't really an option. Finding tech jobs in farm country is a challenge. My current commute is about 1.25 hours, and that's about the outside of what I'm interested in doing daily (thankfully, I work from home 2-3 days/week). I have the luxury of still having a well-paying job, at least. If our paths cross, I'll happily buy you a beer and we can commiserate. Best of luck finding your way out. -Adam On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 8:09 PM, Warner <[email protected]> wrote: > Managers in many cutting edge technical organizations make few if any > technical decisions. > > > -- > Warner > > Sent from my phone > > > -------- Original message -------- > From: Matt Lawrence > Date:05/14/2015 8:06 PM (GMT-05:00) > To: Atom Powers > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [lopsa-discuss] I need a change > > I'm not done with computers or technology, but I am done with being a > keyboard monkey. I need to actually solve problems. That means either > an architect, management or data center manger position. I'm tired of > trying to do work that is equivalent to digging the Panama Canal with a > teaspoon. > > -- Matt > > On 05/14/2015 07:01 PM, Atom Powers wrote: > > Matt, > > > > Are you done working with computer entirely, or just fed up with your > > current situation? > > > > If you need a new situation, then you can change it. I'm sure there > > are plenty of people here who are hiring (my company included) and > > most of them are not dysfunctional. Many will even relocate you. > > > > If you want something entirely different, then the onus is on you to > > decide what you want to do. Some people here may have experience and > > advice for specific kinds of changes but nobody can decide for you > > what you want to do. > > > > > > > > On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 4:33 PM, Matt Lawrence <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I'm done with being a keyboard monkey. The last several years I've had > >> nothing but a bunch of managers who had no clue what current best > practices > >> are and no interest in learning. Add to that the fact they were also > mostly > >> incompetent as managers and I can't take it anymore. > >> > >> How do I find a job that isn't being a keyboard monkey? How do I get a > >> promotion to a position where I can actually use the skills and > knowledge I > >> have developed over decades in the business? I'm stuck. > >> > >> -- Matt > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Discuss mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > >> This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > >> http://lopsa.org/ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > >
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