Looking On The Bright Side...And Making Your Decision

By Alan Hylands

This is Part 4 of a 4 part series, detailing the trials and tribulations of moving from being a data IC to data manager, why we might think about going back to Individual Contributor again, and what could go very wrong with that move.

In Part 4, we’ll look at:

• What can go right with a move back to being a Data Individual Contributor from a management role.
• The things you learned as a manager that can supercharge your IC skills.
• And the things to consider when making that all-important final decision on whether to take the plunge.

What can go right

My goodness but the last part of the series was a bit doom and gloom, wasn’t it? Surely we’re not completely over the hill? Not a busted flush just yet, are we?

Not by a long chalk.

Show us what you’ve learned

Is it all pain and no gain? Of course not. You didn’t leave all of your hard won experience and skills at the door when you went over to the Dark Side the world of management in the first place.

And you won’t leave behind any of the new skills you’ve picked up over there if you move back.

You’ll need some time to get back up to speed on the technical side of things, the world waits for no-one in that regard. And the modern data stack is an unforgiving mistress if you take your eye off the ball for too long.

However, the superpowers you will have developed, maybe under the radar, even to yourself, will more than compensate. In fact, they can help propel you to new heights of possibility as an IC.

Prioritizing the really important work is one of the most important skills any IC can develop As a line manager, you’ll have had this as one of your main tasks, day in, day out. Why wouldn’t you bring those talents back over to the IC world?

• Understanding the business domain.
• Seeing the value of building a team ethos while working on the same level as your team-mates.
• Spotting possibilities for cross-pollination and silo-busting with other teams outside of your function and org chart limits.

GOLD. DUST. Ignore these superpowers at your peril.

Winning friends and influencing people

You can be the best data analyst in the whole world. Stats genius. Coding legend. Visionary gift of second sight into the hearts, minds, and souls, of the customers who are the lifeblood of your business.

But if you’re an insufferable asshole who can’t get along with anyone, on your team, in your management, or throughout your org, then you’re stuffed.

The rest means absolutely nothing.

That doesn’t mean being likeable is the most important thing you can do to further your career. It definintely helps rather than hinders but you don’t want to turn into Captain Butt-Kiss to achieve it.

But…you remember the analogy of being the tennis ball that gets bashed between upper management and the working class when you are a junior/middle manager?

All of that experience of managing up to the top brass, managing sideways with your managerial peers, and managing down to your team members, really does stand you in good stead for becoming a better IC when you go back.

In fact, it’s vital.

Becoming partners, not servants

Building strong working bonds with your stakeholders, be they engineers, product managers, finance analysts, or whoever, is one of the most important aspects of being a successful data analyst IC.

It boils my piss to see so much of the “advice” from data influencers (whatever they are) being a shopping list of different technologies to learn.

Yes, it helps to be technically proficient. It helps a lot.

But it doesn’t mean a damn thing if you can’t work with your stakeholders.

Understand them and their role. Get deep into their business domain. Find their blockers. See where the overlap occurs between your previous world and where you are meeting them now.

That means a lot of:

• Being attentive but not overbearing.
• Being approachable but not bending over backwards for every little request.
• Influencing without brow-beating.
• Working together for the best possible end results, not just an excuse to show off some technical wizardry you are looking for a problem to use it on.

Am I an expert at all of these? Heck no. Go ask some of my previous and current work partners where I need to keep improving.

But work on it I will. For me, this is the best possible area to focus on if you want to maintain your IC career for the next couple of decades. No question about it.

The wisdom of sharing wisdom

“But I’ve been out of the game for a few years Coach, what could I possibly teach these young whippersnappers I’m working with now?”

Many of the benefits of moving back to being a data IC from management aren’t exactly tangible in nature. It’s about the skills and experiences you’ll have built up, even if you didn’t realise that was happening at the time.

It’s about working with people, whether you self-identify as a “people person” or not.

It’s about being able to take a mental model of the biggest picture, split it down into smaller ones, break those down further to manageable chunks, and then look for how to do it all better.

And it’s about communicating that to your team-mates, your stakeholders partners, and your leadership.

It’s about recognising how you do that, even if it’s not something you even realised that you do in the first place. And, most of all, it’s about helping those around you learn better ways to do those things you do so they can up their game too.

Learning, sharing, and making the whole environment even a little bit better. That’s what it’s all about.

And who better to provide that mentorship, to bring others along with you, than someone who’s seen it from the other side of the room as well?

Room for creativity

I’m not saying management isn’t a realm suitable for creative work. Getting people to do something that they don’t necessarily want to do for the greater good of the company can require the greatest creativity imaginable. No doubt about it.

But for me, it was never enough.

I get sad when I read a lot of data discourse online and it’s stuck in the “data vending machine” mindset. Someone in the company punches in an instruction and the data team spew out a report without any creative input to it. What a waste for all involved.

I’m not saying data analysts are always creators of great art, although there’s no denying the artistic talents of many data visualization experts.

We are largely creative thinkers though.

We need to see the business domain, understand how it fits together, and apply that to the multitude of data sources that exist, or could exist, to help us understand it all even better.

This is the part I love about the job. Providing the bills were covered, this is what would keep me doing this job until I’m ready to retire.

Identifying the important strands, finding the data, putting the model together then telling folks a story with what you’ve found. That’s what I like to do.

Being a data IC allows me to do that every day in life. Why wouldn’t I want to jump back over to this ladder and see how far I could take it this time around?

What should I do?

The late English philosopher Alan Watts did a very inspirational lecture on the subject of what would you do with your life if money was no object. Every time I’m in a professional rut, I put the Youtube video on and give myself a mental kick up the rear end.

Am I saying that I listen to Watts and think “if money was no object, I’d be a data analyst!”? Eh, no, not quite.

I love this job, don’t get me wrong, but I’d still swap careers with Stephen King, Slash, or Heung-min Son in an instant.

We’ve go to be realistic though.

We’re talking about choosing between being a data manager or a data analyst. Either way, the data world’s gain is fiction, rock music and football’s loss. Them’s the breaks kid.

It’s not quite a grand existential crisis question. But if we put aside a lot of the societal and financial reasons for choosing one path or the other, which do you want to do the most?

It’s a big decision but, in your heart of hearts, maybe Alan Watts’ advice can help get you over the line on what’s best for you right now.

Wrapping it up (for now)

We looked at many different reasons not to do it, and a good many that made my own decision up for me over five years ago. I haven’t regretted it for a second (disclaimer: that’s probably not true, the path of true commerce never runs smoothly but I don’t regret it at all right now and that’s enough for me.)

Your mileage may vary but the one aspect I always think about is the fact that life really is too short to purposely spend it in a miserable working state.

Consider that part as carefully as the, maybe temporary, loss of prestige, power and ladder-climbing possibilities if you do cross back over the aisle to the IC side.

What’s the worst that can happen?

And if it doesn’t work out then just go back to the first instalment in this career journey series and go be a data manager again. Sure it’ll be a cakewalk after you’ve been there and gone back again!

Good luck in your decisions and future careers whichever way you decide to go. If you have any questions or anecdotes of your own to tell, please get in touch. It’s good to talk and share these experiences with each other.

Photo by Levi Guzman on Unsplash