Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep209: Is it better to be an individual contributor?

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. If let's say you are an individual contributor, you are very good at your work. As you move up, there are actually very, very limited slots available because at some point, if let's say as a manager, you don't need to talk to other people,

I think at a minimum, in a senior manager or director position, even if it's a technical individual contributor, you need to actually work with other people. So when you define individual contributor, what does that actually mean? I think the first thing is that

we really want to be clear as to what do we actually mean. Do we mean that like I don't have a team or I'm the only person in the team but I don't mind talking to other people. They don't report to me.

I'm not a people manager and stuff like that because there's like multiple definitions of that. We want to be very precise. If you're saying that specifically, right, meaning like I'm the only manager or senior manager and stuff like that because there's like multiple definitions of that we want to be very precise if you're saying that specifically right meaning like

I'm the only manager or senior manager and I work for myself I'm an individual contributor I don't want to climb maybe they give me a a junior title I don't mind

so the opportunity cost for that and also there are potential issues of what might happen is you might eventually feel stuck in the role

because in the individual contributor role like it's kind of like fairly similar things day to day so it's really a question of like whether if you think about your career the next 10 20 or 30 years are you going to be okay doing this like purely sole contributor role in the fairly similar scope i mean there's not much scope that you can expand right because you're not working with other people is it it something that you feel satisfied? Because you may feel satisfied in the first one to two years. I'm like, okay, all these people are so annoying, right? I don't want to deal with them. You might feel satisfied for the first one to two years. But if you project, if you continue down this path and you don't bother to want to learn people skills and everything else,

then would it be like a limitation of feeling stuck in the end? Number two, if you continue on an individual contributor role, right, if you were to change careers, it will actually limit your ability to look for another role because most roles, right,

actually need to talk to other people, right? Again, I use the word talk to other people very loosely because individual contributor, we need to really define what that means.

Do you mean that you don't want to manage junior people or you don't want to work with other people? Meaning you just want to sit there, do your reports and like, okay, send boss then done that's quite different so if you were to go down that sort of like contributor role right when you start applying for other

other companies the moment you don't want to do what you're doing right now in your company when you go and apply for other companies those kind of roles will be actually very very limited you might find not not many of those Then the third problem comes in. If you are the only person who's going to do all these things and no one person can resolve everything, don't need to talk to other people and everything, potentially, will there be a point that your role might be replaced?

Replaced by AI or maybe being outsourced to a business center. Like for example, when I was working at Standard Chartered and even at Visa, there were actually many, many roles that eventually kind of got outsourced to a business center. Like, for example, like when I was working at Standard Chartered and even at Visa, there were actually many, many roles that eventually kind of got outsourced

to the Philippines or India and stuff like that. So being a solo contributor, sometimes it can be a risk as well because you're not working at other people. So other people also don't know that, you know,

MAPING is adding value, right? They can't say that, hey, you know, we should save MAPING in this restructuring exercise because, you know, MAPING is working this person, that person

and, you know, the endorsement comes as well, right? The networking part sort of comes in. So there couldructuring exercise because, you know, Meping is working this person, that person, and, you know, the endorsement comes as well, right? The networking part sort of comes in. So there could be a chance that, you know, you might get replaced. And the last potential thing that might happen is that your salary reaches a ceiling. And you might wonder right now,

it's like Meping, how can that be? Because if I'm a technical expert, I'm an individual contributor, how can, like, you know, my salary have a limit, right? As long as I practice negotiation skills, I can increase. Now, I give you a different perspective because you don't want a better job title. In most companies, the title kind of justifies the pay.

And because it's like, I don't want a director title, I just want to stay as my small manager or my supervisor. I'm going to do my own thing. Eventually, it may reach a point of like, they're like, oh, if you don't want that director job or you don't want that senior manager job, which would then include you talking to other people, you don't want that director job or you don't want that senior manager job, which would then include you

talking to other people, you don't want that, that means that in this current job title, your ban is only here. Your salary ban is only here. Director can go on to here, but you don't want, right?

You're going to get stuck here. That could be a risk as well. And don't forget that as you continue to stay in this same space, right? What's going to happen is that there could be other people who,

more junior than you, who can do the same thing as you, but they're cheaper than you. So you must remember, can you imagine an individualized manager with 10 years of experience is going to cost way more

from a company standpoint from a manager who can also do things solo, only have five years of experience. Who do you think is more expensive? Who do you think the company is going to keep? And who do you think the company is going to fire

when it comes to economic downturn? Think about it. The goal is not for me to tell you do you think the company is going to fire when it comes to economic downturn? Think about it. The goal is not for me to tell you all, like, you all need to climb the ladder. It's not. But I just want to give you a perspective of how the dynamics work. And not just thinking of it in the 12 months.

I'm giving you the picture. The picture. The 10 years. Just think about potentially what's going to happen.