Fog Creek is looking for a few good new managers-to-be
The ever-thinking Joel Spolsky and his crew at Fog Creek Software are starting what sounds like an innovative management training program - if you're interested in management at a technology company, and in living in New York City, this could be worth checking out:
Thus: how do we develop the next generation of managers? We don't really want to hire MBAs, because there's too much evidence that MBAs substitute book-learnin' for common sense or experience. We'd much rather hire someone who created and ran a profitable lemonade stand than someone who has taken two years of finance courses at Harvard, especially since the Harvard MBA is going to think he knows a lot more than he really does.
Our latest thinking is just to train a new generation of leaders from the ground up.
To that end, today we're launching an experimental new program, the Fog Creek Software Management Training Program. That's a terrible name, but bear with me!
It's an entry level program, meaning, significant work experience is not required. A college degree is a big plus. The program will last about three years. It will provide experience working in all aspects of software development except for the actual coding itself, along with some formal training.
It's a job. It includes a great starting salary, restricted stock in Fog Creek Software, and the full raft of benefits, from Aeron chairs to free lunch. You don't have to be a programmer or a CS major, although you do have to be ridiculously smart and you have to be the kind of person who gets things done.
The key component of this program is rotating through just about every job at Fog Creek Software. We'll rotate trainees through about ten different jobs over the course of three years:
* Project Management
* Tech Support
* Inside Sales
* Software Testing
* Usability Testing
* Software Design
* Program Management
* Beta Management
* Marketing
* Build Management
...sometimes all on the same day! The theory is that nothing can better prepare you for leading a high tech company than gaining significant, substantial experience with everything a high tech company does, under the mentorship of experienced veterans.
To supplement that, we'll add a component of formal training. There will be some coursework at nearby colleges, long lists of reading material, intensive offsite training programs, and we'll send you to industry conferences that we think are particularly valuable.
Unlike full-time MBA programs, you won't have to pay $120,000 in tuition and $200,000 in foregone salary. You'll be earning money and if Fog Creek does well your stock may be worth something. Unlike management consulting, you won't have to work 18 hour days and fly to some small town in the midwest every Monday morning and live out of a suitcase in a hotel.
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