How to become a team leader?

Alexey Chernysh2019-12-13 15:24:40

Career in IT

Alexey Chernysh, 2019-12-13 15:24:40

Hello. I am 41 years old, I have been working as a programmer for a long time. Tasted many different languages (Java / C# / Ruby / Python / R / JavaScript / PHP / lua / Pascal / C++ etc etc) and other technologies (SQL and noSQL, SVN / Git, Windows / Linux etc etc), fiddled with iron. I have a diploma in psychology, I communicate well with people (both colleagues and customers), I always manage to understand what others want, and explain my position in an accessible way. Other people talk about me as a person who is able to find a way out in a hopeless situation. Fluent English, also German and French.
I think these human skills and engineering knowledge are enough to manage the development or similar business processes, but I have not had such experience yet, I only managed a group of testers in one of the projects.
How to get over this step? There are no beginner team leads. It seems to me that where a broad technical outlook and high communication skills are needed, I would be very useful.

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6 answer(s)

Andrew, 2019-12-13
@chernish2

Description from the category - in words I am a Leo Tolstoy, but in fact I am 41 years old and a programmer. Go to a few interviews for a team lead position and everything will become clear.

Lazy @BojackHorseman IT Career, 2019-12-13
Tag

A team leader is, first of all, a leader, one who leads. and who people will follow. and the point here is not in the luggage of knowledge and not in experience, but purely in the universal inclinations to be a leader. if you haven’t shown yourself in this regard in 20 years of your career, then it’s not destiny.

Robur, 2019-12-13
@Robur

Beginning team leaders are those who do not hesitate with thoughts about how to become them, but go and become.
Stop being shy and hesitant like an 18 year old student - look for an opportunity, go there.
Where these opportunities are for you - only you know. The simplest answer is to look for vacancies for team leads and talk, if they refuse, analyze the feedback and pull up what you need, if successful, evaluate the conditions and agree or not. In general, everything is like in a normal job search.
In addition to soft skills, a team leader will most likely also need task planning skills and a general understanding of project management. You didn't mention this and it looks like you need to tighten it up.
Or look for a technical lead position in a company where there is such a division.
You can just go to the authorities (if there is somewhere to go) and say "I want to be a team leader, what do I need to do for this and in what time?".

index0h, 2019-12-13
@index0h

Have you tried changing jobs? Maybe it makes sense to go straight to the team lead, and not worry about "how to become a team lead."

lJser, 2019-12-13
@SteelJames

You just have to get up and do it.
Look for vacancies.
When I went to interviews for the position of a senior, I was sometimes offered a team lead, or a group leader. But I refused - it's not my thing to manage people

nApoBo3, 2019-12-13
@nApoBo3

Teamlead is a senior developer manager. If you are a confident senior and not badly pumped in management and communication, look for the right vacancy. If there are no vacancies on the market, go for a senior where they are likely to be and are obtained from the personnel reserve (usually large outsource offices, such as epam, luxsoft).
If you do not pull up to the senior, but want to go from the middle to the managerial path, then you are not a team leader, maybe you need to look in the direction of the PM.