Regardless of whether or not a techie pines for management gigs, those who want to advance their careers need to understand the relationship between the business needs and what they are doing, Bays says. Seltzer, now in her 50s, has been building her telecom expertise for more than half her life. Minder, for one, is not interested in management. Once you move into management, if you have your hands off the systems for just one year, you've lost skills. This is not to say that techies can be wholly separated from the corporate grind.
Some techies are excellent managers.
But not all are, nor should they be. Bays says learning more about business doesn't automatically put techies on a road toward management. They can marry technical and business skills and still stay close to the technology. Challenge Mike Jackness, IS director at Lee Technologies in Fairfax, Va., likes working for a growing company because every day brings more responsibility. Lee is an environmental services provider for data centers.