"Having many red indians is better than one chief".
That's the statement most C*O lived-by today in Malaysia. That's also the statement that caused most (if not all) developers to become a 'Manager' at some point in their lives. 10 out of 10 developers I spoke to tells me that they would like to be a Systems Analyst (or equilvalent) in 3-5 yrs, a Manager (or equilvalent) beyond 5 yrs and starting their own business as the final destination.
This is the default path that all IT professionals take in Malaysia today because 'programming' is not seen as something a person should be doing all life. If a person spends too many years in software development, he/she is considered to be 'something wrong' to some hiring managers. Managers are always perceived as people with the power to hire-and-fire and the path to management is also perceived as the path of making more money.
This mentality is flawed and is one of the reasons why the Malaysian IT industry is so down. With an average lifespan of 4-5 years of programming experience, how can our local developers excel in the industry if they keep becoming managers in the end?
"When a surgeon is good at saving lives, don't expect him/her to save more lives by managing many young surgeons".
In our local scene, freshies take approximately 2 years to stabilize before they are mature enough to engage customers, complete their work without close supervision and start to realise there is no paradise at work. By 3 - 4 years, they should have developed some core knowledge and competencies that are useful for software development. By 5 - 6 years they will start to feel the deficiencies of their continuous rework and will start to understand the need for architecturing. Most people stop short from having the opportunity to look into architecturing and beyond, because they usually end up as managers. That's why most of our software are doomed.
I always believed that a person should continue to do what he/she is best at and excel in it. If you look at other countries, developers can be developers all their lives. They become software architects, distinguished engineers and principal architects. This is how they advance in software development. Well, I'm not saying that all developers should just look at code and neglect the business perspective of things, but what I'm saying is developers should be allowed to excel in the work that they love most.
I once thought like all Malaysian developers - preparing myself for the management role and knowing that it is pointless to resist the 'standard path'. However, after being deprived of flexing my programming muscles for 4 years, I have finally seen light. No longer do I need to write petty tools or own pet projects to satisfy myself.
Sometime back, my company has undergone a massive restructure and they are positioning themselves like a MNC. A week ago, I have relinquish all my people-management responsiblities to someone who is more capable of doing that role. I've been granted to pursue my dreams in technology and do what I am good at - software architecturing, without being penalized for not being a manager!
No longer do I need to worry about people screwing up (causing me to screw up for no reasons), why they come to work late, what training they should attend, who should do what, which smart alec is trying to do something to impress me and etc. I now spend more time and have more focus in learning technologies - *Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 looks yummy! Oracle for dessert!*
I hope more companies will follow my company's direction and make the lives of developers better. Although everything looks rosy now, there is no guarantee that things will change in future. So, I will always have to keep an open eye and open ear for those 'manager' stuff.
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