I have worked at 4 Fortune 500 companies during my career. I’ve been with my current company for 3 years and I’ve been promoted twice. A year ago, I became a manager of 4 people. There are aspects of it that I enjoy, like people development. There are aspects of it that I don’t enjoy, like talking about the short comings of my employees during review times and how far I think that they can go with their careers at the company. Writing employee reviews was a draining experience for me. I also like constantly learning. I’m learning how to manage others right now and about corporate policies, but I have less time to learn about my specific discipline. I’m in a ‘hot’ niche of a ‘hot’ (IT) field right now. I wanted the experience of managing others and now I have had that experience (for one year). I’m debating on asking to move to an individual performer role again. While this seems acceptable in my company, I’m not sure how others at other companies would look at it on my resume. My ultimate goal is career marketability. I’m in my early 40’s. I’d like to be able to take what I know and go elsewhere, if circumstances required it, and find a job relatively easily. How might this hurt me, both at my current company and elsewhere in the future?
Categorized | Affiliate Marketing 101
Is Moving Back Into An Individual Performer Role After Being A Manager A Bad Career Move?
Posted on September 16, 2010.
If you will see it as your career then it is bad decision to move back I would suggest you that don’t try to move back and wit a opportunity which offer you better career path.
Yes, it is a bad career move, but it may be a great personal move.
You have to decide which is more important – your career or your life.
You are in a position of what is called the Peter’s principle. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull in their 1969 book The Peter Principle, a humorous treatise which also introduced the “salutary science of hierarchiology”, “inadvertently founded” by Peter. It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and there they remain, being unable to earn further promotions.
At least you have learned earilier than your HR that you have reached the pinnacle of your competence or interests. It is but natural for you to seek a position wherein which you are comfortable with. No one can force you to assume a higher position of which you do not feel qualified or comfortable with.