I’m kind of frustrated with my manager. We have agreed that I am on path to being the tech lead for the team, but I haven’t officially been given that title despite doing everything that’s expected of a tech lead and an IC (~E5) at the same time. It’s been stressful. I’ve never been an official “tech lead” before. I’ve led projects, I’ve lead teams, I’ve mentored, etc, but I’ve never woke up and looked in the mirror and been like “I’m the fucking tech lead”. I don’t have anyone to model myself after and I suffer from imposter syndrome. I have a track record of being a high performing IC. Over the past year and a bit I have been playing “pretend tech lead”. Identifying opportunities, scoping, project management, mentoring, teaching sessions, not much executing, etc. So here is why I’m frustrated: I have a habit of identifying a lot of big opportunities for our team and will share them in passing ie; stand ups, slack, retros, etc. I’ve been told that I do this a lot. I kind of just pop up in a meeting drop the hammer and give a bunch of solutions to our problems then go back into my hole and focus on what’s consumes most of my time, usually writing jira’s or dealing with beuqacratic process for the larger initiatives Later I find that other team members end up being assigned to work that stems from my ideas and usually work that I’ve already been chipping away at. They’re responsible for OKRs related to my ideas, despite me surfacing this and pushing for it for months. Well.... not officially pushing for. It’s not like I write a spec and get it green lit. I just keep whispering in everyone’s ears all of my ideas. I’m basically picking up fruit off the ground and handing it to my colleagues. Granted the projects they’re given are like a few days of work for me. So maybe I’m over thinking this? I’m still having the most impact than anybody else on my team. I still kind of feel like I’m being robbed of work that I should deserve credit for though? I feel like I’m doing all this work and don’t get around to taking my ideas across the finish line because I’m so busy with other things. It’s like the equivalent of me building a PC from scratch and then the team plugs it in and everyone claps and they get a participation badge. My mentor tells me what i’m experiencing is common. And that I’m just having a hard time letting go of IC work. I also feel like my attitude towards this is kind of toxic. I have a history of doing this. Where I have hundreds of good ideas and can only execute on a few and then get upset when others start working on projects that stem from my ideas. I’ve been told before that I can’t win them all. But I want to. Maybe I’m just a shitty leader? Should I ask my manager if they’re aware of what they’re doing? Do they know these are opportunities I identified and I’ll be rewarded for it? Are they just spreading the wealth? Are they just doing what a manager should do and investing in the team? Should I ask them about this? Ultimately I just want to be recognized and appreciated. Then I wouldn’t give a shit. But not knowing if I’m going to be given credit for all these projects is eating me alive. #engineering #software TC: 550k
What company pays $550k for an IC? I'm genuinely curious where you work.
Fintech
You lack people skills even though you have the technical chop that’s probably my guess. Mostly because of the way you whine.
Dwight is that you ? Whatever you do don’t fire a gun at the office
Just stay an IC. You clearly want to win, and not being a part of a collaborative environment.
This. A tech lead plays an orchestration role, helps team members grow and is as much willing to take a step back as they are to take the lead. It doesn’t sound like OP is there at all.