I have a thing about which I would love to get advice, but I don't know if I even know anyone in an analogous position. One of my current goals at work is something that should be simple, but isn't: figure out what my title should be. What is what I do even called, and what's the path of advancement from there?
I was hired to be in charge of a departmental training program, so a big part of what I do is design curricula and develop training materials; but, like at my previous job, I told them I also wanted to do software development. As a result, I'm also the developer and maintainer of one of the most frequently used tools in our NOCC. So basically, I multiclass.
That's really cool, and I'm super proud of the breadth of accomplishments I've had, both here an along similar lines at Red Hat, but multiclassing also presents problems. Case in point: My group at work has been getting bigger, which means they're adding a layer of middle management for each of the many "buckets" in which the team works. Being the most senior (but not the only) instructional designer on the team, I was an obvious choice for being put in charge of the training bucket, but after discussing this with management, we concluded that that wouldn't be the best way to use me. My time is already split between instructional design and software development, and this would split my time a third way by adding people management (something in which I'm only partially interested anyway), almost certainly at the expense of my software work. In effect, the fact that I am doing valuable stuff in two unrelated contexts is a disincentive to advancing me too far in either one. At Red Hat this was less of a problem because my whole department was all about training, so the software projects I did were directly relevant even as I advanced, but while I do have training-related software projects, it's less the case here.
And therein lies the crux of the issue. In effect, multiclassing is (arguably) causing me to level up more slowly. In a lot of ways I'm ok with that, but I do worry about the future. If my path of advancement isn't being in charge of one area or another, what is it? Is vertical advancement even that important? On the one hand I have this gut worry that even if I continue getting raises and whatnot, I'm losing out in the long-run if I'm not moving "upward" in some way. But on the other hand, I... think that's just me being silly? Typical "up up up the zigurat lickety split" conditioning?
So I guess the question comes down to: is it practical to make a career out of being "guy who does a bunch of stuff that's interesting to him and useful to the company", or does a long-term plan need to involve picking a focus?
If anyone's been in or has observed similar situations and has advice, I'd love to hear it.
I was hired to be in charge of a departmental training program, so a big part of what I do is design curricula and develop training materials; but, like at my previous job, I told them I also wanted to do software development. As a result, I'm also the developer and maintainer of one of the most frequently used tools in our NOCC. So basically, I multiclass.
That's really cool, and I'm super proud of the breadth of accomplishments I've had, both here an along similar lines at Red Hat, but multiclassing also presents problems. Case in point: My group at work has been getting bigger, which means they're adding a layer of middle management for each of the many "buckets" in which the team works. Being the most senior (but not the only) instructional designer on the team, I was an obvious choice for being put in charge of the training bucket, but after discussing this with management, we concluded that that wouldn't be the best way to use me. My time is already split between instructional design and software development, and this would split my time a third way by adding people management (something in which I'm only partially interested anyway), almost certainly at the expense of my software work. In effect, the fact that I am doing valuable stuff in two unrelated contexts is a disincentive to advancing me too far in either one. At Red Hat this was less of a problem because my whole department was all about training, so the software projects I did were directly relevant even as I advanced, but while I do have training-related software projects, it's less the case here.
And therein lies the crux of the issue. In effect, multiclassing is (arguably) causing me to level up more slowly. In a lot of ways I'm ok with that, but I do worry about the future. If my path of advancement isn't being in charge of one area or another, what is it? Is vertical advancement even that important? On the one hand I have this gut worry that even if I continue getting raises and whatnot, I'm losing out in the long-run if I'm not moving "upward" in some way. But on the other hand, I... think that's just me being silly? Typical "up up up the zigurat lickety split" conditioning?
So I guess the question comes down to: is it practical to make a career out of being "guy who does a bunch of stuff that's interesting to him and useful to the company", or does a long-term plan need to involve picking a focus?
If anyone's been in or has observed similar situations and has advice, I'd love to hear it.