First thing I would suggest is thinking about what kind of company you want to work in. I haven't worked much in very large corporate structures because they aren't well suited to my personality. I appreciate good management but very many layers of management tends to set up power structures that I just don't mesh with well.
So working for smaller companies, I've found that my mixture of management and technical skills allows me to be useful in situations that need a lot of flexibility. Right now I'm the sole person on this project as it was a start up that got acquired. As I finish up things and they start selling more I expect to get additional developers on board to advance things further and then I plan on moving into more of an architect/project management roll. I still want to lead development but don't need to have my hands in every single bit of code. I expect that down the road I'll do more design/requirements/etc. and do most of my coding at the beginning of a project, getting it set up, and at the end of a project, jumping in to put out fires as we try to meet deadlines. That's just a guess though. But I think if you really want to keep a foot in both worlds you should concentrate of getting the skills to do the parts you want to be doing and then go out advertising yourself as someone that can fluidly transition between roles as needed to make sure that projects get done well. Its a valuable skill set and fits in nicely with companies that need management but aren't so big that they need a bunch of managers that do nothing but manage. My $0.02 Judah On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 2:15 PM, CFTodd <[email protected]> wrote: > Like I said, this is my last shot and I don't want to screw it up, so I > am looking for any and all opinions. > > I was speaking with my academic adviser this afternoon and when he saw > the MBA, he suggested my secondary courses all be MIS rather than tech > heavy Comp Sci route. He further suggested I seriously consider pure > Management over the MIS. I am sure any choice is a fine one, but I am a > Comp Sci guy at heart. Taking the required Comp Sci classes would add a > full year to my program. The Business Management over the Management > Information Systems is just his recommendation. > > I don't want to go from coding to pure management. That isn't my > style. I would love a nice mix. My ultimate goal is something between > a programming team leader and someone who sits in an office and look at > facts and numbers all day. > > I am really at a crossroads here and could use any advice, opinions, > theories anyone may have, especially from those of you with post grad > degrees, or degrees other than Comp Sci, MIS, or even Math related > ones. I admit that I have not kept up with the job market or trends > these past 18 months, so, I need some expert advice :) > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:284410 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
