#alwaysanengineer

Our careers need not be a linear path. In reality, we should navigate our careers with an approach that is mindful of unique opportunities that allow us to grow both professionally and personally. I have tried to take this to heart and it has led me into some interesting, and often difficult transitions. One of the key transitions that gets the most interest is my move away from work that is highly hands-on and technical.

I’m an engineer through and through. Always have been. Arguably, always will be. Many of the people that I talk with each day, meet at a conference, who attend my talks, and likely read this blog are highly technical in their nature and their work. We are birds of a feather. However, I have found that a very high percentage of the highly technical I interact with have a strong hesitation, if not fear, about their technical skills diminishing. I’m often asked about my transition and, most importantly, how I’ve made it stick.

The answer is simple. I made a decision that the skills I wanted to develop and nurture going forward were not technical skills. I looked at the places where I might want to go in my career and realized I was not likely to get there nurturing the skills and work that got me to that point.

The hardest part of this transition is acceptance.

It takes time and resolve in order to step away from being hands-on technical. I believe my ultimate success was a result of gradually transitioning to jobs that required my technical capabilities less and gave me opportunities to develop other desired skills.  

These transitions allowed me to develop the skills that I thought were going to be most important to me going forward. Communication, Collaboration, Community Development, Marketing, Management, Go-to-Market (GTM strategies), and Leadership. I had a desire to be seen as a trusted advisor and to help people in different capacities.

This transition has taken several years and a few job role changes. In a future post I’ll outline some of the concrete steps I took to navigate this non-linear path from highly-technical engineer to an engineer that uses his past experience in connection with newly developed skills.