Another common career trap for IT pros is believing that the only way to a high salary and title is a management career path. Wrong! First of all, not everyone is cut out for management. Don’t believe me? There’s a crazy statistic that says that 40% of all new managers fail in their first year. The number reason why? They shouldn’t have pursued a management career in the first place! So why do people fall into this trap? First of all, they haven’t explored the alternatives. They don’t clearly understand what other IT careers are out there. This is more than the case of the developers don’t speak to the network engineers. It’s highly likely that their managers haven’t had a career conversation with them to help them explore other options. Or the organization that they work in does have a broad spectrum of these jobs. Technical career paths are becoming more and more important as technology evolves and we need more specialized technicians.

How to Beat It: Find out whether you’re cut out for management. Are you willing to leave your technical skills behind? Will you get just as much job satisfaction out of helping someone else succeed as you did from your own personal accomplishments? Read up on what it takes to be a manager but most importantly, ask yourself, why you want to get into management. If it’s just about the title and the money, there are easier ways to achieve these! Also, learn more about other career paths in IT. If you’re a developer talk to the network engineers. If you’re a network engineer talk to security specialists. The more you know the better career decisions you’ll make.

Next time we’ll explore career trap #3: Becoming too technical.