[TX81Z]

So many people in leadership at top companies just won the start-up lottery as a junior employee and had the internal drive to get promo at all costs to gradually get to the top. As soon as they leave the bubble it’s clear how few real skills they possess.

Likewise, the degree to which Director+ jobs just hire based on current title at a competitor alone is bonkers. I’ve worked under people who are utterly clueless but managed to make VP at the place up the street. So they just get to be a VP at the next place.

[tyingq]

The key milestones for VP often are

- Luck landed them in a leadership spot on a project that was already successful or headed that way

- They didn't do anything to abruptly change that course

- They are skilled at managing up with the right words, phrases, actions

Then, they move up in the chain they are already in, where everything is very familiar. Goes well enough until they move outside that bubble.

[throwboatyface]

Yup. If you got your foot in the door at the right place and people in leadership liked you, you're on the track to be a director in 6-8 years. Usually the people who promoted you were themselves early employees with no experience being executives, who just peter-principled into senior director/VP roles.

I've watched these failsons get promoted to senior director/VP, leave before they were ever accountable for their bad decisions, and then bring all their cronies over to the new place at the same levels.

[ryandrake]

If I could go back to the 70s and re-do my character creation, I'd put all my skill points into Charisma and would have been a CEO by now. Why bother with Comp Eng and business degrees if I could have instead just "be liked".

[mkii]

This is indeed all too common but sadly not unbelievable. Most mid-to-higher manager roles are not to be effective with a mission necessarily (which would require "real skills"), but instead to hold responsibility over a particular function. If the proverbial storm hits the fan, these Directors/VPs can migrate to another company, bringing all their previous cronies with a nice title/pay bump.

[jahewson]

What gets me is that they have no idea how awful they are at what they do.

[user_named]

That's probably a pre requisite

[TX81Z]

What’s worse is they don’t care.

[wombat-man]

Sounds rad as hell if you're a VP