There were several instances during my career where I knew I was looking for something different, but I wasn’t sure what exactly is “different”. I suffered as so many of us do when you’re unsure how to choose your next tech career move.
At some point, I went from developer to developer lead and to manager. This transition proved much more challenging than I expected, as I had years to learn to be better at coding. Managing people, communicating, planning, and leading were completely new skills that required me to go back to a beginner level.
Later in my career, this became a recurring question: What do I want to do next?
You don’t have to have a fully-formed vision of what you want for the rest of your career. However, there are a few key questions to pay attention to.
Start with what doesn’t fit
Take a look at your current or previous positions.
What parts of the job feel draining? What responsibilities do you try to avoid? What situations cause you to think “I don’t want to do that for the next five years”?
It might seem obvious, but knowing what you don’t want can be quite revealing since it allows you to avoid jumping on the logical, yet inappropriate next steps.
Observe your patterns
One of the most valuable clues about future career paths comes from observing the patterns in the work you tend to do naturally.
Throughout my career, teaching, mentoring, writing, and helping other people grow kept coming back regardless of my job title.
Consider the same patterns in your career history.
What types of work make you lose track of time? What responsibilities keep coming back from your coworkers? What type of problems do you enjoy solving?
This is where you need to focus.
Don’t get stuck in the titles
It’s very easy to fall into a trap of thinking about titles like Senior Developer, Architect, Engineering Manager, Developer Advocate, and so on.
However, it makes more sense to start with the questions:
- Do you want more programming?
- Do you like mentoring others?
- Do you enjoy managing people?
- Are you interested in teaching?
- Do you prefer working with customers?
- What kind of problems do you like solving?
Start with the questions that reflect your interests and desires first. The titles will come later.
Experiment with directions
You don’t have to make huge decisions that will determine the rest of your career path.
Try something smaller and experiment more often.
- Mentor someone
- Lead the project
- Write an article
- Give a talk
- Contribute to an open source project
- Take on tasks unrelated to your regular responsibilities
These experiments can teach you much more than spending too much time overthinking what should be done.
Only one decision at a time
As I said earlier, my career path is far from what I imagined when I started out.
Sometimes clarity comes only after you make the next move.
There’s no need to know where you want to be in ten years. It’s enough to have enough clarity to make the next move.
If you’re trying to decide what’s next for your tech career, consider my career coaching services to help you clarify your goals, understand what you want from your next role, and develop a practical plan to move forward.