Virgil

The Division Chief at work called me over one day a week ago. That’s my boss’s boss, and he asked me a personal question.

Before I get to that, let me try to explain the organizational structure. I have a boss who manages a Branch which is situated within a Division which falls under a Directorate. And there are three Directorates, each with Divisions, each with several Branches. You get the picture. I manage a research project, directly funded and chartered by the Vice President of R&D, who is outside the organizational structure. All the research projects go through her office. So my direct management has no say in how I manage my project. They may write my annual performance appraisal, which seem to be more meaningless every year, but my boss essentially just manages people and their personal issues. I really need to satisfy the R&D V.P. and I do that by achieving the goals of the project. So in many respects, my boss is a figure head, whose role is essentially administrative.

This may sound intuitively strange to some I suppose, but I think many engineering companies are structured this way. Projects today require diverse skills, and each branch at the most local level develops the skill that they are responsible for, their expertise. Then the people in those branches get farmed out to projects, research projects, development projects, production items. So I as a project manager will put together a team, culling engineers with expertise from structural, design, manufacturing, test, electronics, communications, software, quality, even packaging, each from their respective branches. We form an integrated product team (IPT), laying out a plan to address the project, assign resources, lay out a schedule, and execute, and of course redesign, re-plan, re-schedule as events and demonstration tests unfold. Each person from a branch has their own boss, but their work to a large degree is directed by the project manager.

So you can see that there are two career paths one can follow, either an administrative role or a project manager role. Usually the technical roles are of lower grade than the administrative roles. If you have a title, you get more pay. I remember when I was originally promoted, oh I guess that was about the year 2003, I was to be a branch chief, but it so happened there was a major reorganization at the same time and they wanted to consolidate branches, so I was asked if I minded remaining in a technical project manager role while the branch I was to head got absorbed into another, keeping my newly promoted grade. Minded? You mean I get to remain a technical project manager while getting the same pay as a branch chief? Oh heaven. That was one of the luckiest things that have ever happened to me. Most engineers love the technical over the bureaucratic, the hands on over the paperwork, out in the field over staff meetings. Ultimately my boss started calling me “the shaftster,” since he, so out of place as an administrator, got the raw end of the deal when they kept him as the one branch chief over me. He, in jest of course, says I gave him the shaft. I certainly was the envy of most of the engineers.

Now when I first became a project manager with the same grade as a branch chief, it was a novelty but in recent years they have expanded that and given the same to others, and in turn branch chiefs, needing to justify their title, now get a five percent pay differential within that grade. After all they are technically a boss over people such as me, and it has to count for something. I didn’t care. I love my job. I love figuring out the multi year plan, making technical decisions, allocating budgets, integrating one element with another for a system design, actually in some cases a subsystem design with several subsystems leading to a comprehensive system. I love the team dynamics, working toward a solution, brainstorming when we come to a dead end, seeking out technologies from others, even if it’s outside the company and not politically correct. It’s not the Apollo mission to the moon (which I would have loved to have been a part of), but it’s challenging enough.

Which brings me to my Division Chief and his question to me. There was a little discussion going on in the hallway, and after that started to break up and as I was turning away he called me over.

“Hey, M---, do you have a minute.”

“Sure,” I replied, “what’s the matter?”

“Let’s go away from here, let’s go to my office.”

Hmm, that sent a little panic in me. What could I have done wrong? I always get a little nervous when the boss asks me into his office. Don’t forget, he’s actually my boss’s boss. Ok, we’re there. I saw he was trying to gauge his words, the mind processing.

“What’s your plan for the future?”

I shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“I’m looking to fill some slots and I’m thinking of you as a branch chief.”

“Oh, I’m no good at that.” I said it with a scoff. At least I hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s not what I’m really good at.”

“Well, what are you good at.”

“I really love managing a project.”

“Mo [my boss] says you’ve turned down the branch chief job down when he asked you.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“You know it comes with more money.”

“Not enough,” I laughed.

“How long are you still going to be working?”

“You mean before I retire? Who knows?”

“At least ten years?”

“Oh yeah, at least that, probably more.” Actually I was thinking quite a bit more; I must really be looking old.

“If you’re going to move up even higher, then you have to take steps.”

“Yeah, I realize that.”

“There’s going to be a reorg in the near future and I was thinking of you to fill a spot.”

The thought that raced through my mind at that moment was, here at this point with the way I say this, could be the end of any further advancement for the rest of my life. This could be career limitation moment.

“Well, thank you Nick, thanks for thinking of me. I really appreciate that. But right now I can’t see myself moving off my project.”

“When is your project ending?”

“It’s slated for a final demo at the end of ’13.”

I could see he was running the number of years in his head.

“Alright. Mo said you felt this way. I just wanted to make sure.”

“Well, thanks again for thinking of me.”

So did I just career limit myself? Possibly. Certainly through my organization. I guess I could always advance through the R&D V.P.’s office, if I could find an open position there. But the fundamental fact remains, I just love managing a big program, and now mine is the second biggest R&D program in the whole place and I don’t want to take on a brainless bureaucratic position. The extra money would be nice, but it’s not that much and after taxes it’s barely anything to rave about. Sure it’s less work if you ask me but where’s the accomplishment? What has he done at the end of a day but just pampered some kid and new hire, made sure he’s had the proper training, and accounted for the business unit’s finacials? Of course he’s right, you have to build on something, but frankly I don’t see myself as a director. I’m really happy at the moment with my job and there aren’t many people who can say that about theirs. On my desk I have a framed quote from Theodore Roosevelt, a quote that has guided my career and to some degree life. It says:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

I may not have been the greatest engineer in the world - I didn’t invent the light bulb or the computer - but I have never been timid about stepping into the arena and trying to take on the hard challenges, some of which have faltered and several of which have been successful. I think I’ll remain in the arena for a bit longer.