How a 35‑Year‑Old Engineer Built a Technical Management Career in IT

Overview

The author, now a senior R&D manager overseeing front‑ and back‑end teams, reflects on a 16‑year career that began in 2009. Early years were marked by frequent job changes in traditional and outsourcing firms, low‑impact projects, and a lack of mentorship, which left him feeling like “a headless fly”.

1. The First Five Years – No Growth

Like a headless fly, I kept bumping into things but achieved nothing.

Four companies, two of them outsourcing, offered only routine enterprise‑level back‑end work with minimal technical challenge. There was no guidance on design, code quality, or career planning, and the author admits he needed a mentor to break out of the stagnation.

Without good mentors, you may stay stuck for a decade.

Key lessons: frequent, aimless job hopping hurts reputation; finding a reputable internet company is crucial for rapid growth.

2. Turning Point – Joining a Large Internet Company

At age 30, a friend urged him to “reset the resume” by moving to an internet firm. After multiple failed interviews and intensive self‑study (books, blogs, demos), he finally joined a well‑known Guangzhou internet company in 2015, even at a lower salary and title.

He participated in a massive system‑reconstruction after a critical failure, working on high‑traffic projects (millions of concurrent users) that dramatically improved his Java, system design, and architecture skills.

Team stability is essential; without it, the system can be killed.

Despite proving his capability, he was denied a team‑lead position, prompting him to resign and seek a technical management role.

3. First Experience as a Tech Lead

He joined a fast‑growing mini‑program e‑commerce startup, leading a 7‑person team. He wore three hats: architect, project manager, and people manager. The biggest challenge was delivering reverse‑scheduled projects on time while still writing code.

Key outcomes:

Gained hands‑on team‑lead experience.

Improved project‑management skills under tight deadlines.

Learned that in a startup, delivery outweighs long‑term technical planning.

Realized the importance of personal networks for job hunting.

4. First Role as a Technical Manager

After the startup folded, he moved to a well‑funded restaurant‑tech company as a technical manager of a 13‑person backend team. He started by one‑on‑one interviews to uncover bottlenecks, then handled frontline incidents to understand the business.

He identified a critical issue: the core PHP system was overloaded while Java developers were idle. He advocated for a full rewrite to Java, which was eventually approved by the CTO.

Core system reconstruction improves stability and accelerates feature delivery.

The 10‑month migration to Java involved extensive gray‑release and rollback mechanisms, resulting in a stable system praised by the CEO. He also spent three months on‑call, directly solving production problems, which accelerated his business knowledge and credibility.

5. First Position as Backend Technical Lead

In 2022 he joined a leading restaurant company as backend technical lead. The CTO’s background and company reputation were decisive factors. He faced a high‑pressure environment with strict technical standards, extensive code reviews, performance testing, and a detail‑oriented leader.

Key takeaways:

Admit shortcomings openly and seek support from leadership.

Accept that some problems require time.

Persist despite a demanding culture; growth still occurs.

6. Managing a Full Front‑ and Back‑End Team

After a short job search, he secured a senior manager role overseeing both front‑ and back‑end teams. He recruited two senior engineers and several junior Java developers, forming a small but capable core.

He built a lightweight R&D process from scratch, covering requirement intake, development pipeline, and a shared technical foundation. The team adopted a “developer‑operates‑its‑own‑deployment” model similar to Alibaba’s mature pipeline, achieving high development efficiency without dedicated QA or Ops staff.

Key Lessons Summarized

Career moves should be upward; avoid lateral or downward jumps.

Each new step is demanding, but surviving it yields rapid growth.

Learning from senior mentors accelerates skill acquisition.

Honest self‑assessment and open communication with leaders are vital.

Team management skills are honed only through real‑world practice.

Luck and networking play a significant role.

Overall, the narrative provides a step‑by‑step roadmap for engineers aiming to transition from individual contributors to technical leaders.