So for the last couple of days I have been questioning my current status within my career path. Should I be seeking more developer type positions or is it time to move up to management? Right now I’m kind of lucky. I work for a large public company as a Local SEO specialist. Unlike other SEO position with this role I’m able to develop from time to time. I work with a much younger crowd some of which are managers. Sometimes I tend to believe they must think something is wrong with me since I’m not further along in my career path. But what they don’t know is that I love building things. I’m what I would call a developer through and through. I’m sure I’m not the best developer but I love developing. I love talking tech, reading about tech, and being around like minded techs. I’m probably one of the few who actually doesn’t mind sitting at a desk crushing code for 10/12 hours. Building something from scratch, turning it into something awesome and then watching people interface with it interests me the most. The idea of losing that passion and turning into someone who keeps tabs on other people scares me. I don’t want to be that guy.
And honestly when you think about it do we really need managers or perhaps should we be focusing on hiring better organized and responsible people?
A while back I was watching a 60 minutes or maybe it was a CNBC interview with Mark Zuckerberg. It was interesting to hear his thoughts about “The Social Network” movie. Mark at one point made the following statement, “Why not build something because you love to build things” well maybe this wasn’t exactly how he said it but it was something along those lines. He was basically replying to an allegation that he built Facebook to meet girls.
When I heard that statement I thought, dang this guy is just like me, that sounds exactly like something I would say. I mean really what’s wrong with building something for the sake of building something cool? Maybe it was just late that night but I recall thinking, dang me and the CEO of Facebook have something in common, how awesome is that.
I’m sure if I ever get the chance to meet Mark this would be one of my first questions “Was it hard moving from a developer’s role into a the CEO position”?
Because right now that move freaks me out.