I am a senior mechanical engineer and would like to transition to management position. Can a senior engineer apply for senior manager position?
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In terms of lateral move, expect no salary increase, unless significantly higher level of responsibility. ISC way is a viable option, since they went through significant salary adjustment for most functions, people in general received 10+ % salary increase. Customer facing roles generally pay better and provide better opportunities for career growth. If you are in engineering, I mean, specifically engineering chain of command, under CTO; salaries tend to be on the lower end for individual contributor positions and to get to Lead Level or Principal level is tough.
Do not take a QUALITY or SOURCING or PROCUREMENT position. They are nightmare organizations, which continuously get beat down, always understaffed, and management is trully in-capable. It also depends on the site. CLW ISC is a very entertaining site, dealing with site leadership is a gift that keeps on giving.
What lateral move should I consider?
Sure you can. The shipping clerk can apply for CEO if they want.
One thing you can be sure of, you won't move from band 3 to band 4.
A new hire could come in as senior technical manager or principal project engineer in band 4.
The best an existing employee can hope for is a lateral move with the promise of a promotion sometime in the future.
Lots of valid points in the previous posts and whilst you can apply for the role, it'd be very unusual to go from Senior Eng to Sen Manager unless you're being 'sponsored' by those higher up the tree plus the expectations of the role are onerous and unrealistic.
Whether it's the right move for you, only you can decide but having been a manager in several engineering orgs (inc HON), HON is by far the worst in terms of lack of management flexibility as it's all about meeting the metrics, CAT milestones and reactive to the whims filtering down from above.
Only those with demonstrated brown-nosing skills would be considered in most cases. If you were one of the "anointed" they would have already tipped you off - "competitions" for such positions are largely a formality.
Uh, Why?
not worth the trouble tbh -
any efforts you make will be undermined by arbitrary cost saving decisions made elsewhere -
you will of course have the pleasure of passing on the news those riffed
You can apply for any position of your choosing. But to go from senior level individual contributor role to Band 4 people manager is difficult, unless some one is pulling up. HR policies require a person to be in Band 4 as individual contributor first. Second an individual generally needs to go from Band 4 IC to Technical Manager position and manage up to 4 individuals for some years, then after around 3 to 5 years one can apply for a Senior Manager position, which manages up to 20 people now. Director position requires 10+ years of people management experience. Of course that all goes out of the window if someone is pulling you up....
First you need to sell three things - your heart,soul and brain. Technically you are qualified for management as long as you are missing the first two but you don't need the third so Maxwell ease the transition by stopping any critical though of getting in the way of the bad ideas that you will be supporting.
Next you should take a supervisory role. It's like management but with no power more reports and responsibilities and the pay of an Engineer 2. After 18 months of shifting the blame for your groups inability to meet unrealistic and brainless ideas, gaming the metrics, working all hours and backstabbing your reports. You will be qualified to apply for a first level manager job. Now if you are well enough liked but not so much that you seem potentially threatening you might even get the management job at the same pay you had as a senior engineer. Now 18 months and you already for the senior role- right?
Wrong! You will need to take a couple of side roles in customer support or project management. Now you have proven you have what it takes. Unfortunately you are too old and you keep losing out to 23 year old MBA s. Have fun.
Yes you can.
But be put on notice that unless you are someone tagged to move up, or exceptionally talented at people management, I wouldn't recommend it.
However, if you are doing it for a band 4 position, it will be a gamble to try to shift from manager back to principal. It can be done, but not in your current discipline. You likely will need to jump to Project.
You really want to become a management heart breaker? You cool with being forced to pick 10% of your reports to be designated under-performers and thrown in the elbow, thence to be denied a raise or promotion? You good with that? If you are, and you aren't pestered by that annoying thing called a conscience, then have at it. You are Honeywell management material. Oorah.
Be careful what you wish for.
No way, that's not what management is looking for. Engineers usually make decisions with logic and reality in mind. You also may examine a task and plan an approach that does not have an unrealistic schedule to completion that only focuses only on the dollars that follow regardless of quality
Why? I've watched so many good engineers become managers then get laid off every time HON rethinks it's structure. Every 2 yrs, they change how many levels of managers there are or how many direct reports they shove under 1 person, or whether they're technical or people managers... and we loose a good engineer turned manager to another company.
It's not a smart long term move unless your padding your resume to jump ship.
You know this is a layoff site?
Of course - Your H1B Visa will be approved and it takes about 90 days.
That will be a stretch without prior supervisory experience.
Management is very challenging in honeywell emotionally and in terms of work/life balance.
New managers are almost exclusively assigned to broken teams and it takes a LOT of effort to get to the state of a trusted and smooth group. You must repair both your new team and all the external relationships.
Kudos if you are up for the challenge.
There are so few people that want to tackle ANY level of leadership in honeywell these days.
Everyone with ambition said goodbye when they didnt get promoted. Honeywell leadership now automatically goes out of house first.