CHAPTER 8MANAGING FOR THE FIRST TIME:Things Just Got Real
There are many exciting and important moments throughout your career. The raise you didn’t expect (but deserved!) comes through. You’re given a new title, put in charge of an important project, or transferred to a high-profile division. While all these can be confidence boosters and do advance your career, none come close to the importance of being made a manager for the first time. You. People. In charge. The boss. It’s a whole different world.
Interestingly, this shift can happen at almost any stage of a career. Some people fresh out of college get tapped to run a small team. Others go years as individual contributors, preferring or doing quite well in the trenches. But no matter how or when a first-time management gig starts, let me be very clear. This is a big moment—a huge chance to succeed or, conversely, fall flat on your face.
For better or for worse, companies generally give higher salaries and fancy titles to those who lead—not those who are led. So unless you work for yourself and only yourself, you’re not going to get ahead unless you embrace and excel as a manager. Even though managing is fairly commonplace, and it’s a role that’s been around forever, it’s hard to imagine anything more challenging. Just look at some of the tasks the role can require:
OVERSEE A STRANGER. Suppose you moved into a new neighborhood ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month, and much more.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
