I get to define my own career path/targets. Any ideas?

[iwease]

Hi,

I have been working as a contractor for an engineering company and now they want to hirer me into the software department where I will become the department head. Of course, the 'department' currently only consists of me, and one other programmer. The problem is the company I work for is using the software department to do many many misc projects. We are pulled in several different directions every month. And so, the department has no real standards, really doesn't make much revenue (maybe 30K year) and is really unorganized. If I come on board, I have to turn the department around and also spearhead a software consulting effort to help up the revenue.

It's up to me to write my own job description and I need to create a list of targets and salary raises/bonuses to reflect meeting those targets. Can anyone offer some advice on this. Here are my targets so far.


Aug 2007 - 75K
Start Work

Dec 2007
Finish MRC

Feb 2008 - New title - Software Design Lead
Develop the following procedures for the software department
•Software development model (required documents, milestones for new & maintenance projects, scheduling, naming conventions, testing, coding standards)
•Training schedules for software personnel
•A model to quantify the cost/revenue for internal projects to help determine priorities and have it approved by management
•Establish standards for hiring new employees

May 2008 - Bonus
Start first non-AKA contract. If no prospects exist, have a clear development plan for software specialization (possible options include PI, MatLab, GIS) to acquire external contracts. Establish contracting goals and determine specialization path based on profitability, ease, and relevance to future AKA products

Aug 2008 - 85k/possible title change
Review/Retainer

Nov 2008
12 Weeks of external work + hire first contractor for year end. Be able to show the value of the software department over the past year in terms of money and determine if it at least broke even (using real revenue as well as that determined by the method developed in Feb.)

Feb 2009 - Bonus
Begin development process to plan for new product/service

May 2009
Hirer employee so that sw total is 3. Have 1.5 team members available for AKA work, and 1.5 available for consulting work.

Aug 2009 - 95K - Software Head
A software/MatLab department consisting of 3 employees (including myself) + a contractor when needed, and 10% above break even revenue (this includes assumed revenue from internal projects according to the methodology developed in Feb 2008)

 

[tfg13]

Considering you are giving yourself a $10k raise every year, why a bonus? Not knowing where you are working at, doesn't help either. Have you looked at what other "software design leads" are making in your area?

 

[aarenot]

cost benefit analysis

Current contracting gig, pay, duties, hours, benefits of self employment, etc.

VS.

the pay, duties, responsibilities, hours, benefits, of taking what is not currently a dept, but just a couple contractors thrown at a problem into a new profit center for a business owned by your current customer.

DO this for the customer(proposed employers) point of view, and for your businesses point of view.

Sounds like a huge increase in responsibilities, duties, hours, head aches, demands, and you have no vested interest in the ownership. I would assume you should expect a serious increase in pay just for the change in duties, maybe double what you are making now, then more just for becoming management since you are currenlty just doing programming, and this is way more than being a programmer.

Since you currenlty run your own business, look at this as a job you are quoting. Research it, and put together a bid. Then make sure you will be making at least as much money as if you were going to do it as a contractor within your pay structure you will expect. Especially since it looks like once you do all this, they can send you down the road with no pay raise, no bonus, no owndership, and no hard feelings on their part. Make sure your plan would leave you with no hard feelings in compensation if you were let go at any point along the plan you put together.

If you are good, and their offer says they know you are, expect to be paid like you are good, and not after you do the job, but while you do the job. Set bonusses based on gross revenues not net profits, because anyone can manipulate net profits down anytime they want to. Anything not in writing is something you are not going to get, and some of what you have in writing you will not get.

 

[danvlas]

the 'department' currently only consists of me, and one other programmer"

Looks like the 'other programmer' is overwhelmed, can't properly do his job because of millions of fake responsibilities on his head (stuff like 'my computer does not work if not plugged in and it's programmer's fault that I spilt coffeee over the keyboard').
Of course, the company does not appreciate what they already have, that's why 'YOU' are getting the management position, not him (who probably has worked there for several years now and expects them to give him a higher position). Be careful not to end up in his position AFTER he's gone.

If the other programmer is NOT yet an employee of the company, you may have a chance. If he is, he will help you burn your a** in no time.

I've been in an IT management position in an industrial company for 3 years now and I miss the times when all I did was programming...

If you want to do your job but care about people's feelings, stay a contractor. They will respect you from a distance. Join their organization and they'll change their opinion almost instantly, because it's your responsibility to do anything that deals with computers (write CD's, remove viruses, click on 'Cancel' in a dialog box on a computer that's 500 meters away from you, change a network cable, plug in the damn printer, change the cartridge, explain why opening an unknown message has resulted in a total crash, that typing 10000 is different from 300 and so on). Remember that the top-management does not have the time nor the knowledge to listen to your explanations for the above. What in heaven can you explain to them? clustered indexes? foreign keys? referential integrity? Come on, no 'normal guy' understands this klingonian language...
And when you're sick and tired of stupid questions and say 'just restart the damn computer' you'll be reported to the top-management as being 'offensive'.

It's not sci-fi...




Daniel Vlas
Systems Consultant

http://www.geocities.com/danvlas/AutoMail.html