Getting stagnated...

I have spent my past 8.5 years of my career doing Data-warehousing and Business Intelligence. What next is something that I keep asking to myself, almost everyday? One of my managers stopped by and asked me.

"Are you getting stagnated?"

I was taken aback. I wanted to know why did he feel so. He told me - "Because you are working on the same thing for 8.5 years".

In Indian IT Services, we have this strange theory engulfing every software engineer -

"Every 2 years you need to get promoted and become a Project Manager very soon".

And once you become a Project Manager, you should become a Delivery Manager and then an Account Manager and then...It depends on tall the corporate ladder and how wide it is....

This phenomenon is affecting the whole technology arena. The IT Services industry in India wants an engineer to transform from an "Innovate-new-things-guy" to a "Get-things-done-guy". An "Innovate-new-things-guy" has a lot of technology background and a "Get-things-done-guy" has a lot of management background. I would say the latter is the Supply part of the equation and the former is the demand part of the equation. And the equation needs both the parties. Somehow our IT Services managers are causing an imbalance to this equation by drying up the "Technology pool".

There is never stagnation in the technology pool, because technology itself is not stagnant. Do doctors get stagnated? They sit in the same chair for years and years and do the same kind of diagnosis, though every case would have its own complication.

There is always a career for specialization.