CAREER ADVISOR

“Your Career Advisor” is responding to two inquiries:
“how is the transition from a pure technical software developer role to a managerial role made?” and;
 “I am an Accounting graduate with a Masters in International Law, where should I direct my career ?”
All reasonable questions related to careers, skill development or employment related issues – sent to advisor@skill-link.com - would be addressed in this section every week.

Q1: how is the transition from a pure technical software developer role to a managerial role made ?
I'm a recent Electrical Engineering graduate from Ain Shams University (Egypt), switching my career to IT with Oracle Certification. That has been my aim several years ago, not because it's fashion now :). I have fair managerial, leadership and communication skills, which I acquired from my internships, Rotaract activities and University activities.

My Question is, how is the transition from a pure technical software developer role to a managerial role made. As, I don't want myself when I am 35 years old to be stuck with technicalities. In other words, do top managers in the IT field most likely come from technical or from Sales/Marketing background ?

M. H. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Mr. H

You did well be involving yourself in a number of extra curricular activities (internships, Rotaract and other social initiatives at the university); just studying during college years is not enough to improve your professional opportunities upon graduation.

The challenges of moving to management (becoming a manager as opposed to performing a technical task) are the same: IT field or not. Production engineers in a manufacturing company or credit officers in a bank have the same issues to face. Being a manager requires the person in question to perform a number of tasks (some of them are quoted from an article published several weeks ago in skill-link.com's Interest Zone "You Are A First Time Boss !") :

As a manager you no longer have to worry about your own work alone but also about the performance of a group of individuals. Each of these individuals has his/her own character, motivation, needs and interpretation of things.

A first time manager has been probably promoted to your first management role because you achieved more sales, brought in more clients, showed more expertise in technical support or completed those financial models or budget projects in record time. But it's very possible that these talents won't necessarily translate into being a good manager.

A successful manager must wear several hats, you must be aware of:

  • Experienced Advisor: since your subordinates will look at you for advice and problem solving of complex issues they do not seem to be able to handle on their own. If you are the both, you ought to know more than them. You need to live up to it for most of the time at least.
  • The elder brother or sister: in some cases you need to worry of your subordinates well being and personal problems. They need an attentive ear to listen to them in confidence and without abuse. Regardless of how busy you are, you need to dedicate some personal time to your people.
  • The fair judge: while you may have personal liking for some of your subordinates more than the others, some of them succeed in getting more time from you; it is a must that you treat them all equally and fairly. Otherwise you have failed as a manager. It is not always easy. Also as a judge you are now in the position of telling others they did well, the need to improve or their work is poor. Many individuals would like to avoid telling others they have shortcomings or they did a bad thing. Writing performance appraisals for those who are average and below average is not a task managers enjoy, but it is part of their job.
  • The coach: The key measurement of your success, is how you motivate, develop and drive your subordinates to achieve and excel. While you may have your own problems and ups & downs, you can never for go your role as their coach. If you stop overseeing people and find comfort in doing what you did before (sales, tech support, financial models etc..) you will rapidly fail as a manager.
  • The role model: regardless of what your subordinates say or do, you will always be looked upon as a role model for them. The way you talk, act, dress and approach things. Thus you must follow what you preach; no more finding excuses to miss work, waking up at your leisure and arriving to work late is now a bad message to your team.
  • The communicator: you will now have to double or quadruple the amount of effort and time you dedicate to communication (verbal, written, meetings etc…). Your staff are not supposed to guess what you want and how you expect things to be done. It is not a waste of time, but an integral part of your role as a manager.
  • The worrier: whether you like it or not, your worries have just multiplied. You are now worrying about career advancement, work problems, achievements etc.. for your own self and for your whole team. Welcome to the world of management.

As per the above, a manager should develop several qualities, most of them are acquired by observing others (more senior managers in your work place), reading is useful, some training courses also help. As a manager, your subordinates usually expect you to have expertise in one field at least. From the previous attributes, it is obvious why 'normally' it requires a few years of experience to become a manager.

So back to your specific case, even if you start as a junior software development in a company, doing nothing but applications, as you become more experienced, demonstrate a responsible, reliable and mature attitude, prove to be a person who aims at delivering quality work and requiring little supervision, a professional who thrives to meet dead lines…. You will start getting more responsibilities: supervise more junior colleagues, become a team leader or a project leader etc…. these are your first steps into management. If you are working in an IT consulting firm or a software house you should then expect to become a manager of certain service line, product or function. On the other hand if you are working in a trading, construction or industrial company you could progress to become the head of technical support, application development etc… then up to IT manager. Regardless of where you are progressing, your new roles (even if it is Technical Support Manager) will not require you to spend the majority of your time in fixing bugs or trouble shooting a database problem. While you may attend to these issues if they are serious enough, you will have to devote your time to planning, scheduling tasks for your unit, identifying training needs for your staff, coordinating with other departments, budgeting your requirements for the coming year, negotiating with suppliers etc… and if you are in a revenue generating department (eg. an IT role in a consulting or an IT company) you will have a key responsibility to develop new businesses and ensure customers are properly served.

So to sum up our long reply, professionals progress to management roles in all disciplines. Considering the second part of your question "do top managers in the IT field most likely come from technical or from sales/marketing background ?", here your inquiry applies to IT companies (ie. Those whose business is to sell IT products, services or solutions). It is more likely of course that the CEO, managing director or president would have had a good exposure to the business development side of things (sales and marketing). It is highly unlikely that an individual who has always been assuming technical roles away from getting new clients and negotiating deals would lead a company. That does not mean, however, he must have played that role from his / her first day out of school. But somewhere in his/her career a business exposure is required. Very similar to the Finance Manager (or Director), regardless of how qualified and talented he / she is, it will rarely happen that they would be running a commercial, industrial or service organization.

Good Luck.

Q2: I am an Accounting graduate with a Masters in International Law, where should I direct my career ?
I graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University in 1999, with a major in Accounting. After graduation, I started working on my Masters' degree in the field of International Affairs Law, which I obtained in July 2001. I am also fluent in English and French.

In my masters the areas of study included: Distribution, International Marketing & Investment Laws, EU Commercial Law, Economic Environment & Legal Frame, Financial Analysis, Contractual Techniques & Special Contracts, Contracts Execution & Arbitration.

Meanwhile I worked as an Administrative Assistant in a project funded by JICA (Cairo University Specialized Pediatric Hospital), then as a Management Assistant in one of CARE Egypt's projects "New School Program" and as a translator with CARITAS Egypt. This helped me gain professional work experience in dealing with people and handling work responsibilities.

This is in addition to the experience I gained through my volunteer work with some NGOs (non governmental organizations) such as the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) and the ROTARY in organizing conferences. I also had community service experiences since 1990 through social activities organized by CARITAS, Upper Egypt Association when I was in school; with the ROTARACT (since 1994) and with the Maadi Environmental Rangers (since 1997). This gave me a wide background in the field of social and economic development.

I would like to have a career related to my field of study but I am not really sure in which type of business (bank, company, law firm....etc) and specifically in which department should I apply (Finance, Marketing, ....etc) taking in consideration that I am not interested in working as an accountant and I prefer outstanding and creative jobs.

S. R. F. (Egypt)

Replying:

Dear Miss. F

You definitely reflect the traits of an active, self motivated and constantly willing to learn professional. Your activities and post graduation employment have provided you with a very interesting insight on certain aspects of our society and foreign institutions funding developmental projects in Egypt.

More interesting is your Master's degree, which is in a field of growing importance, and we assume was studied in French. Having had an undergraduate degree in Accounting, exposed you to management, taxation, financial management etc… which is a plus over those who have only studied law in university.

There is a very limited number of young people in this region that have this mix of languages, activities and combined field(s) of study.

It is a waste of time and talent for you to seek work in the accounting field, you should seek areas where you have a competitive advantage and where you will be interested and motivated. What could these be ? good question J the following are some of the more obvious possibilities:

  • A non for profit business association, where by your experience and skills may be of use for the conferences they prepare, the publications and training activities ? eg. the American Chamber of Commerce, the French Chamber (CAFE), the British Egyptian Businessmen Association (BEBA). We are not suggesting the German one since you do not speak the language. Also, the European Union has just established a generously funded "Egyptian Industries Modernization Program" within the Egyptian Ministry of Industry and the Federation of Egyptian Industries. Since they started to hire, you may be of value to them.
  • Diplomatic organization: you may be interested in joining the Egyptian Foreign service or the Commercial Representation service. Females are welcomed there and are assuming growing responsibilities. In the last few years to veteran foreign service ladies have assumed ministerial positions (Mervat El Tallawy, who was Social Affairs Minister after serving as Ambassador to Japan and Fayza Abul Naga the current Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, after serving as Egypt's Ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations' European head quarters in Geneva). Alternatively, if this field does not excite you, you may consider the Commercial and Economic bureaus of foreign embassies in Egypt, these always seek local staff to assist in their research and negotiations… I would start by approaching those who require the French language (France, Canada, Switzerland) before the others… Finally, under this same heading "diplomatic" you should not discount the various UN organizations (FAO, WHO, UNICEF, ICAO etc…) and other similar entities the IMF (international monetary fund) the African Development Bank, they all have significant presence in Egypt.
  • A law firm with international clients ? could be, you do not qualify to be a lawyer since you do not have a BA in Law, but you may be useful to them in various aspects of their clients work (research, contracts etc..). Specially that most lawyers in Egypt do not have a strong proficiency in foreign languages. While we are on this topic, you may always enroll in a distant learning program (intissab) to obtain a law degree an become a full lawyer in 4 years if this field attracts you. We believe it is very promising for the right individual. Egypt lacks well educated lawyers who master foreign languages (mainly due to our inefficient university selection process after high school).
  • Trading companies: we should also not discount large trading companies (export - import) that have significant transactions with the rest of the world. If they have French language partners, it puts you at a better advantage. You may wish to have a look at the members directory of the French Egyptian Businessmen Association (CAFE).

We hope the above was of some use to you.

Good Luck

Note from the editor: 
Employer names and inquiry sender names were withheld for confidentiality

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