You can break out into blocks on your resume and c...
# work-career-advice
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You can break out into blocks on your resume and call out work you oversee vs. work you do hands on. That’s easy. The challenge will be whether some employers would question your management judgment and ability, because if you’ve been doing IC work while being paid as a mgr, then you’ve essentially been overpaid and have been wasting company and team resources. You might be better off making clear in your application that you want to step back and do more IC work, without over emphasizing your current IC work. Personally, I’ve hired some managers who’ve wanted to step back from managing. It’s never been an issue for me or my managers to understand why some folks might want to do that. One of our writers at NerdWallet, for instance, had spent many years in high-level roles, overseeing large teams and operations, and no longer wanted to do that.
BTW, if you’re hearing that people are worried that you’re too senior, are a paper-pusher, etc., it sounds like you’re getting intws. If so, then it’s probably not the case that they think you’re too senior — if that were so, you’d not get intws at all. There’s probably a gap in how you’re framing your work or abilities and they tell you you’re “too senior,” because it’s the most convenient thing to say. Otherwise, maybe they think your descriptions of work sound dated, removed from what top-performing ICs are doing or how they’re doing it.
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FWIW, I’ve managed teams of ~100 and served for years on NerdWallet’s exec leadership team and get pitched by companies big and small. That includes potentially becoming the first hire to lead a function at startups. That automatically would mean doing IC work for starters, even if they want me to build a large team. No one ever questions that I could do the hands-on work if needed. I mention that, because there are a good number of companies that offer what you want. Keep looking for the right fit. Otherwise, you could always offer to do a project or two hands on for a fee, to show your skills. It shouldn’t have to come to that, though.