|
What am I worth?
It’s always fun when the annual salary surveys come
out. They help us gauge our worth to our
current or potential employers. Even
though each case is unique and some may be considered as a higher bounty than
the next, it’s a good average case comparison.
The annual survey is just one of many triggers that cause me to casually
browse the employment sections, even if only to derive what companies are
planning on for their next project.
Where am I?
At the time of this writing I am a Lead Senior Engineer for
my employer. Well, truthfully my officially
recognized title is Project Manager, but I don’t like the sound of it because
the title separates me from the code which couldn’t be further from the truth. My responsibilities are across the board, literally.
I talk to the clients, build the development schedules, write up status
reports, find and hire my engineering staff, coordinate with the Art Director, game
design, core engine design, code support tools, code game features, integrate
assets, proctor meetings, and much more.
It’s kind of like running my own little company without having to sign
the checks or make the pitches. We at
least have a business development person for that. It is a fun learning experience right now, but I would
eventually like to regain focus in my career.
Level 2 Boss
Ultimately I’d like to move into a Director position, one
that allows me research future technologies for a company and potentially
coordinate the tools departments and the game teams, etc. I know that I can’t code forever, but this
would allow me to still dip my toes in and keep the company on the bleeding
edge at the same time.
The art departments always seem to have an artistic
equivalent of what I just described. An
Art Director, for example, might be responsible for coordinating the art team
with the requirements of the game team.
He/She would also be researching new and up-and-coming art styles or
visual effects seen across multiple mediums including movies, games, cartoons,
or even comics.
I would imagine that a
similar role should exist for the engineering department and would be my next
logical step up the ladder. So where is
it? The title of Technical Director seems to be so broad across the industry that
you can’t even search for a job by that title.
Peaked too soon
Phalic jokes aside; as funny as the title may sound, it kind of feels that way
sometimes. Just for giggles, I decided
to search around the web and on various business groups that I am a member
of. I was looking to see what my next
level of employment would be. It kind of
scared me when my search came up nearly empty handed. There were plenty (relatively) of Art-based positions
from junior level all the way up to Directors.
I managed to scrape up a solid handful of junior programmer positions,
but that’s about it.
I’d like to
believe that this is only a result of the current state of economy. I mean, have I peaked already? Am I doomed to a title of Project Manager
where I throw the kitchen sink into another sink before throwing that one?!? I still have another lifetime to live before
I can legally retire and somehow the glass ceiling is starting to feel
unsettlingly close.
My collar is a little tight... Is it getting hot in here? *sigh*
|
Though I pretty much have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm pretty sure you haven't peaked (and I'm also pretty sure you know that).
1) High/Senior technical jobs seem to be dwindled in comparison to artistic positions.
2) The lack of a standardized job ladder for anything above "software engineer" is a little frustrating. Leads, Directors, Architects, Designers even; they mean different things to different companies. Some large corporations use the numbering scheme of SE-I to SE-VI where each tier has different pay grades and responsibilities. It's not ideal for a lot of reasons, but it always lets you know exactly where you stand.
3) and yes, the economy really sucks right now. It's probably the first time in my life that I've ever felt like I might not find a new job if I was laid off. It's a little eerie.
One is that we will choose our career early and enter the industry of choice, or even join one particular company with that industry, and simply grow from there, reaching higher and higher levels of "success" (however you frame that) without having to course-correct. This will sound familiar and quaint to the older member of our community who've experienced first hand how rare the reality of this dream is. To those who haven't experienced a major shift in your career yet, trust me, it's likely to come sooner that you think for any number of reasons.
The second one is the topic you've chosen here; the idea that once you've proven yourself on one rung of the career ladder, you're going to be recognized as ready to move up to the next rung, and that those "powers that be" will value you more in a higher (sometimes different) position more than they value you in your current one. Sadly, there is an economic and business mechanic here at work to keep those that do well in a particular, specialized area *in* that area. This is not like scholastic life, where once a level of achievement is earned, one simply graduates to the next. For a business standpoint, why would a company risk taking an employee who's proven successful in a specialized area to put them in an unproven position, when they would have to simultaneously take the risk of filling the now vacant specialized position with someone new (or likewise unproven)? A businessman will answer simply, "They wouldn't". It's not that you've hit a brick wall in terms of your professional or creative advancement, it's more that you've hit the rut in the road, where the company feels you're simply more valuable in the position you're currently in.
This is all just informed opinion on my part, but it leads me to believe that this is why we see more "peaked" individuals in our industry (and many others) break out, either by going indie or changing companies, if they're able to convince another businessman that the next rung is really where they can be more valuable. In a way, success that's too focused can hold back the kind of career progress you're talking about. I can't claim to hold grand advice from this point, only to say that a solution to this kind of dilemma may rise from constant exploration and growth of your skillset outside your profession that leads to something you can present independently.
Ultimately the current structure of most company is a pyramid. Some are flatter, some are steeper but most companies above some small size all pyramid. Being surprised of "peaking" is like being surprised that there are less and less spots the higher you go. Of course one can rely on the myth of quantitative growth proposed by mainstream economists, at which point, if you can't climb higher in your company you can either jump ship or found your own company. But the reality is that although the economy is not a zero-sum game, growth cannot always be quantitative and there simply isn't enough space at the top nor there is enough space for as many companies as there are people.
My suggestions in this context:
1) recognize that as there is a top, there is also a bottom and that it's -OK- anywhere under the top. In fact it can be quite comfortable -IF- the people at the top can be trusted.
2) largely disconnect -money- from the "altitude" of a role. Use seniority in the company and seniority in the business instead, with a performance component established according to company goals and culture.