Recently I was having an annual performance review with one of my staff who happened to be one of the best techies in the field of IP networking. I had observed his excellent technical and managerial performance and identified him to be the manager of the division. To my surprise the person didn’t want to take up the new role, instead wanted to continue as a subject matter expert.

This leaves the task of answering the question – what should be the professional career path for Engineers? If all engineers are going to become experts who are going to manage the engineers, engineering  organizations and projects? If engineers become managers, to what extent they should retain their technical competencies? On the other hand, can non- engineering managers lead engineers and engineering projects?

We have seen instances where not only non- engineering managers miserably failed to manage technical organizations and projects, but engineers who have become mangers also failed doing so. The key ingredient to manage engineers and engineering projects successfully is to understand the scope of the work, technicalities, complexities of the environment, risks, costs associated and the human interactions. Further such manager shall lead the team using good management tactics. Strong fundamental back ground and keeping up with latest developments in engineering disciplines help engineers to become successful managers.

Most of the time experts are individual contributors. They should be having very strong technical expertise and continuously upgrade their knowledge in their domain. Depending on the organization’s operations model, more or less number of experts and managers will be required. The organization should have proper carrier growth paths for both types with relevant benefits attached to their designations. This framework is successfully practiced in software industry and similar structure could be implemented at public and private engineering organizations.

When IESL is conducting the professional reviews to recognize a person as eligible to be a Chartered Engineer and then as a Professional Engineer, often it is noted that significant emphasis is given for the managerial experience. We should not forget the fact that there are experts and consultants who may not be so called as “Engineering Managers” yet world class experts. I am of the opinion that evaluation panels shall take this fact into careful consideration.

Eng. Indika Walpitage
Indika.walpitage@gmail.com