to feel annoyed about this hiring of an unqualified peer?

[poopsqueak]

Posting here for traffic.

I work in tech. I am a Project Manager. I work with a team technical staff to deliver projects. These include developers.

Recently a lot of developers have quit. In my opinion it is because they have no route to progress (there are 25 of them and they are managed by one person, who very much doesn't like to manage people as he used to be a dev and wants to retain a hand in tech work - this person has been with the business since the start). I have a problem with this because it makes it hard to deliver projects when staff are quitting and no one will do anything about the reason they are quitting.

One of the top devs in the business handed his notice in last week. Obviously tech manager tried to get him to stay, but didn't offer him a route of promotion in his own dept, for example, senior developer, or head of development. Instead he offered him the same job as me, Project Manager, which takes him out of his management line and under my bosses (project management). It also wasn't his job to offer as there is no vacancy and its not his dept.

I am quite pissed off at this, as I know he has no experience in PM work and the 3 other PM's have years of industry experience. This will mean a deficit of experience across the dev teams, and I will have to hand hold (this has happened before). There are also no team members for him to manage or deliver projects with.....

My problem is not with this developer per se (hes a nice guy), but that the tech manager doesn't want to affect change in his own dept and is shoving this unhappy developer onto us. He carries a lot of weight in the business having been there since the outset and is very dogmatic in his opinions.

My boss (who I will speak to) is brand new in the business and I cant quite believe he has accepted this. He has just sacked a very experienced Senior Project Manager and replaced with someone junior last month.

What shall I do? I cant help but feel annoyed that this person will be earning the same as myself and my team but has literally no experience. Its just so weird. I feel like my boss has been strongarmed into hiring him as part of our team because he threatened to leave and someone promised him something.

I'm no good at workplace advice (don't work) but it would annoy me too.

Perhaps be as unhelpful as it is physically possible to be without getting yourself fired? If he has no experience I imagine he'll flounder, but that will probably end with the developer guy will end up being fired.

It sounds like you need to speak up to your boss about the set up in that department. You don't need to directly challenge the guy, maybe "I feel that the department would function more efficiently with more stages of hierarchy" or "perhaps our more ambitious developers would feel more motivated with a position to work towards" etc.- not my most articulate perhaps but you get the idea!

How big are the projects you manage?
In many ways if he has the technical expertise he can use that to his advantage in the projects he is managing?

He can get training for Prohect Management. Losing his technical skills will be far more difficult for the company to replace.
They do need to look at a technical progression path, but if this is a quick fix to keep someone who is very good and has a lot of experience then I can totally understand.

Unless you know for a fact the guy will be shit at project management, as in you've seen him do a shut job already then I think YABU to judge him just because he isn't educated to your level. Also how do you know he will be earning the same? I say all this because my dad got a really good job doing something related to what had done for 30 years but in a completely different industry, 90% of people at his new work place had been to either Oxford or Cambridge and EVERYONE had a degree, my dad hadn't even been to college! And people there made it very clear they didn't think he deserved the job. He was started on a lower (although still good) salary than other people would have been started on. That was 3 years ago and now he's everybody's go to and they love him.
This guy might be really good yet. Obviously if he's not and you have to pick up slack that's different but I feel you are judging him too soon.

I understand where you are coming from. I am a Developer and would never ever make the jump to Project Manager, it is a completely different line of work.
Would you not suggest to your manager that the Developer may be more suited to a Senior Developer role or Technical Lead, even an Systems Analyst role would be a better progression?
What does the Developer himself think?

I don't think it's about education to be fair, as pm/agile quals become out of date very quickly.

It's more that he's only been out of uni a couple of years (he's 24) and has done development for 3 years. So imo a senior development role would be a fantastic jump for him at that age. To jump up and into a completely different discipline is just weird.

It would be like me saying I want to leave and being offered the head of HR role or Head of Finance. One step up and one step across.

I just think it's the tech manager happy with the status quo as it is (as in he can't be arsed to devise a development path for developers) and he's shoving him on us.

I'll try to speak to him tomorrow too, he's a really nice guy. I'll just say something along the lines of 'didn't know you were interested in Projects' blah blah and see if he truly is interested or if he wanted a more senior dev role.

We've had a good couple of developers leave for the exact same reason recently and I just can't see how the business isn't addressing the issue in the right way.

I do understand and actually 3 years is not long in a job, especially if he came in as a graduate.
It depends on whether he is being fast tracked for promotion.

How big a jump is is between Developer and Project Manager? I ask because all organisations are different.

I definitely wouldn’t expect him to be able to Project manage the implementation of a new ERP system.
But he may be suitable to project manage some small scale change that is planned.

But I do get your annoyance.

Only three years experience and he is one of the top developers in the business? Most people have not built up nearly enough skills in that time to be one of the top . Is he seen as good because everyone else has left? I just can't get my head round him being so good after so little time.

Are your PMs paid more than the developers? It’s the opposite way round in DH’s sector. Although I guess it is a quick path to Account Director, and that is paid pretty well. There are lots of failed devs who end up in PM (and in QA, and in Experience, less so in strategy for some reason). But it isn’t usually the good ones, they are too valuable.

But anyway yes I completely sympathise. Failed devs thinking they can waltz into Experience with no knowledge of the job is the bane of DH’s life (he’s head of dept). The profession has massively expanded over the past decade, and in his words “these new ones just don’t want to engage their brains”.

If he’s familiar with the end to end process and is great at stakeholder management he may turn out okay. Maybe he could act as junior PM to you and you could manoeuvre yourself into a Programme Manager type role? He could be useful.

What do you hope to achieve by raising this?

You give your skills and expertise for a salary. I assume you're happy with your remuneration because you're still there.
How much others get for giving their skills and expertise is not your affair. Focus on yourself.

Keep your nose out.

It sounds like you are on a poorly-managed ship which unless change comes, soon will be a sinking ship as your well-managed competition pushes past your company and work dries up.

He is great at business knowledge and steps out of his dev role quite often (I like to think that devs when personable as well as technical are seen as golden) but I just worry that he's been pushed on us and no matter how personable and technical he is, product ownership and project management is just no where near his skills profile.

Pay is different. Avg dev (not a senior dev) earns around 25-27k PM's on 40ish k as will be dealing with multiple projects and are commercially client facing. We also have to be technical too and keep up with accreditation. Most of us have also been Scrum Masters/Product Owners in previous roles too. So we all have agile team
Management skills.

I mean, what kind of projects is he going to be managing? Is he line managing senior and lead devs like us? (This will be problematic I think given that he was below their level previous to this move)

That depends on the set up of your organisation and might be worth airing your concerns to your line manager.
What constitutes a project in your dept? Surely there would be some that would go to more experienced PM’s and others which are a good starting block for others to build up their experience.
What are the thoughts of others in your team.

So a project would be some sort of feature development for the platform that usually takes a team 6m-year to deliver. Some of these are client facing and large, some are smaller and cross platform.

Some include just development work and some are massive monoliths where we are installing back end systems (databases etc)

The thoughts of my fellow PM's are the same as mine. We all chatted about it in a weekly meeting. We have one Senior PM who has worked on massive global programmes, and he's quite affronted by the move. Feels it some how diminishes his role. I dont quite feel the same but I definitely feel annoyed about it. Someone asked our boss today (bravely) about a junior PM role, assuming this guy has got something along the lines of this and our boss said there is no junior role, so hes probably getting a pay raise of about 30%.

*pay rise

I’d tread carefully if I were you, the managers who appointed him will not take well to you criticising him.

Yes, I think you are right. I just won't say anything but I will definitely remember this and bare it in mind when considering my future.

I think colleague is annoyed enough to speak up about it so I don't think I need to. I will voice my opinion if asked about it by my manager.

May even hand my notice in. Might be offered 15k and a promotion! Ha ha.

I think you’re being very ageist towards this chap. He’s in a role with the same level of responsibility as you. I’d imagine he’ll have the same deliverables as you do (maybe not initially, but once he’s up and running), so why shouldn’t he be recompensed the same?

I get that maybe he doesn’t have as much experience as some of the existing team members, but a line has to be drawn somewhere, and that should be on merit.

I'm not being ageist, but he literally does not have ANY experience in this field.

I've just found out hes been given a parking space too. There are literally 10 in the building, reserved for senior leaders. I struggle to park near and with dropping off/picking up DC before and after school it would be really handy for me. Ive enquired before and been told 'sorry senior leadership only'.

I just think this whole thing is bizarre and very annoying.