I feel like my business / soft skills are being under utilized as a SWE. I studied business at Haas (Berkeley) as an undergrad, did management consulting for a few years before starting a company and falling in love with code. Been a developer for ~6 years now (2 on the frontend, 4 on the backend). Getting better but find that many of my strengths / skills on the business side are under utilized as a SWE. As a management consultant I managed million dollar projects, had associates under me, served as a direct contact for clients, led meetings with execs, etc. I have yet to do any of these in any meaningful capacity as a SWE -- I miss being a leader, mentoring others, having real trust placed in me, etc. Part of it is that I went from being at the top of my game as a mgmt consultant to someone who was working hard just to keep up. I hope that as I gain more experience I'll be able to be a leader again -- but doing backend Infrastructure engineering I feel like there is a long way to go before I achieve technical mastery and I wonder if I'll ever be as good as top CS school trained engineers. Is there another route that would be better for me? Some type of solutions engineer, sales engineer, or software consultant role that's less technical and a better blend of my skillsets? I'd also considering going back to web / full stack but not sure if that would lead to a pay cut. TL;DR -- I feel like there is a lot of value that I could have produced that was left on the table because many of my strengths are under utilized as a SWE. How do I find better alignment as an engineer with business / management consulting experience? YoE: 4 as a SWE, 4 as a management consultant TC: $150k
Just curious, why did you leave management consulting?
Enjoyed coding more. Better fit for my personality (not completely introverted, but more introverted than most consultants). As a management consultant, the value you produce is closely linked to your time, so even as you get highly skilled you have to work 60-80 hours/week, unlike as a SWE where your output can be highly leveraged.
A solution architect at AWS or a sales engineer would be a better fit for you.
Do they make as much money as SWEs? I'd definitely be curious to learn more
Yes. Join a company (ie: Amazon) that offers professional services/pro-serve as a consultant, PM, EM, etc
It depends on team, I did a lot of that kind of thing as a developer even though I was only two years out of undergrad. Had no interest in doing that kind of thing but my manager suggested I try it and I ended up enjoying it a lot. To get a better understanding of the business side, make connections with PMs to understand their needs. You can frame it as what you can do for them, what pain points there are in the current process, etc. I started off doing this, and after a few months, I was regularly attending review meetings with directors and VPs where my opinion was constantly asked for and a key part of their decision making. There were more senior people on my team but they had no interest doing this (they were backend so more of a heads down and code type).
Awesome, that's really cool. Hope to be able to join a team where I can get involved like that.
OP: Are you ex-MBB? I assume not but just checking.
No, its top 50 though
You could get on a more consumer facing/revenue driven project. Or, sales/solution engineering. Or even engineering management.
Startup