[Madhoo]

Hi,

I had varied work experience of about 10 years in IT field starting with AS/400, Java, Oracle and certified in Oracle developer. My recent past eaperience is in to Web Tech, ASP/PHP not much but a little of DOTNET.All the way through I had been a very good developer and Tech guy with awards.

Now, recently I happened to take up a Project Management Job , the job is not all that bad but I feel no interest in it. I am really bored to death. Although I am able to do things like scheduling etc. something seems missing a vague empty feeling in me and I feel the developer within is dying fast.

I feel like kicking this job but afraid to take the risk.
Guys here are friendly. I do want to contribute something good to this company but can't say if I can.
I don't know what to do and every day I feel very unconfortable in my role.

I am very confused...

Please help me with good advice.

Thanks in advance..

Bye..
Madhoo

[Clough]

Get your resume ready. Always be ready for the next position. Even if you are comfortable where you are now. Apply for jobs. Get and take the interviews. Practice interviewing with companies even if you don't take the jobs if that are offered to you. It may be just time to move on to something else. It is best to be prepared to move on to something else if you need to.

If you don't take risks, you will not grow as a person.

[ronlewis]

Hi,

I had varied work experience of about 10 years in IT feild starting with AS/400, Java, Oracle and certified in Oracle developer. My recent past eaperience is in to Web Tech, ASP/PHP not much but a little of DOTNET.All the way through i had been a very good developer and Tech guy with awards.

Now, recently i happened to take up a Project Management Job , the job is not all that bad but i feel no interest in it. I am really bored to death. Although i am able to do things like scheduling etc. something seems missing a vague empty feeling in me and i feel the developer within is dying fast.

I feel like kicking this job but afraid to take the risk.
Guys here are friendly. i do want to contibute something good to this company but can't say if i can.
I don't know what to do and every day i feel very unconfortable in my role.

I am very confused...

Please help me with good advice.

Thanks in advance..

Bye..
Madhoo

There are a lot of things you can do to keep the inner developer from dying and to help your team. Project Management is more (although PMs with little or no developer experience will argue) than just tracking schedules, coordinating/facilitating workflow, etc.

- Help with the SEP. Does your company have a Software Engineering Process (SEP)? You can use your experience as a seasoned developer to help steer a SEP creation/adoption.

- Institute Design and Peer/Code Reviews. This will allow you to keep your hands in code and be of great benefit to your company. It's an easy sell. As a PM, regression cycles deal death blows to budget and schedule. By giving "once-overs" to design and code -- you reduce the number of regressions by up to 70%. (But you, as a developer, get to keep your hands in code. If you see something inefficient, you can either recode it--or provide examples).

- Mentor junior developers. No one seems to have time for this anymore. However, mentoring junior developers helps the team and earns you respect as dev. I've been involved in numerous development efforts both as a dev and as a PM. Projects run by developers who understand project management tend to be more successful than projects run by PMs without hands on dev experience. PMs without this experience have trouble gauging levels of effort.

--Work on your own project on the weekends. Provided that you're not in the thick of a project as a PM, you can start a project on your own. This will provide challenges and opportunities to hone your skills as a developer and keep your development skills alive and current (provided you don't undertake the project in something like QBasic, PowerBuilder, COBOL, or Foxpro [no offense to anyone using these--they're good, just not necessarily current!]).

Being a PM can be very rewarding... especially if you're good at it. Being a PM that is respected by your developers is a huge challenge and extremely rewarding--especially if they've had any previous experience.

Do be prepared to move on--but keep in mind that being a PM can be more stable than being a developer. In the last 20 years--I've met lots of good developers but only worked for two good PMs.

Ron