Ask HN: Promoted, but Career Path Derailed
Maybe "derailed" is a strong word. But here's my situation:
There was a re-org last quarter. My team was working on a specific domain managing a stack. There was another close-by team working in that same domain managing a different stack. They hadn't been one team from the get-go due to political interpersonal reasons. My director got fired for bad performance, and the other team's product launch failed (under a different director, both under the same senior director).
The other team took over my team's stack and manages both stacks now. The other team had a senior staff engineer, and I (then a staff engineer) was displaced. I was moved to a different domain and promoted to senior staff engineer, onto a team that was historically seen as badly underperforming, and was a huge contributing factor in my director getting fired. I have experience in both domains, but my knowledge, experience, and interest prefer my old domain, in the team I was displaced out of. At first, the senior director didn't outright tell me I couldn't stay in the old domain, but made it very clear it was in my best interest to move to the new domain, where there wasn't a staff+ engineer. I've been reassured my performance is great and I feel my work on the last team was appreciated across the org and I established a good reputation, but it's upsetting that I'm not able to continue to work on my specialty.
I've been feeling lots of things. One is that I really don't like being in charge of my own destiny with this kind of thing. I've left a company due to a bad reorg before largely because I wasn't in control. I don't want my career and life to evolve by happenstance. Another is sadness at the loss of prominence in the company, since I have to re-orient myself on this new team, where two experts are already prominent as leaders. Another is just the fact that I don't enjoy this domain as much and don't find it as interesting, especially as the work in my previous team is getting into my specialization just this year after I've left. Another is that I'm bothered by the lack of continuity in the large projects I had worked on. It pains me to leave so much in a half-finished state.
A new director is starting in two weeks. I don't know how much or whether to surface these issues to him. I'm hoping I could start to report directly to him to be able to work on cross-org initiatives, including things related to my other domain, which has certain points of intersection between the domains.
I'm not willing to leave the company because its stock 6x'ed last year. I'm looking for other options and advice on either what actions to take to change the situation in ways that'll make me happier and more satisfied at work, or thoughts that'll help address the feelings about this.
Thank you.
Reads like you are in a (very?) large org. Reorgs and politics are par for the course.
You got a promotion into an area where you have a chance to prove your chops by improving on things. Get this right and you'll be in line for more promotions.
Being "the expert" in a specialized domain is often a career limiting thing. Broadening your areas of success is generally better for your long term career.
Probably best to wait until the new director settles in before pitching your proposals. In the meantime, take a look at how you can further improve how the management views your contributions and the value you produce.
I'd guess that management is hoping that you've got some Right Stuff, to lift your new team's performance out of the basement.
But what about the "two experts are already prominent as leaders" on your new team? Were they there when that team was building its "we are crap" reputation? Are they technical experts, who aren't really capital-L leadership material? Are there personality clashes, and maybe those guys need to be separated? Or, given the fired director, might management be looking to put a fresh set of trusted eyes (you) into the situation, to let 'em know what the problems on that team are?