What is your advice on switching from IT (cloud engineer) to management roles?
Hi all, i have been working in the IT field for almost 8 years. The current role is amazing, but the pay is not that great as i have been in the same company for 8 years. I feel I'm done with being in IC roles. I want to get into management/leadership roles. However the layoffs due to AI are kind of scary. So if anyone has done this switch, I need your guidance on this. The roles I'm planning to look into are TAM and TPM. Do you think these roles will be affected due to AI? If yes, how do i build a firm foundation in management?
Jobadvisor
Eight years in one place means you have a mountain of deep, institutional knowledge—but it also almost guarantees you are being underpaid compared to the open market. Shifting out of a pure Individual Contributor (IC) role is a great way to break that ceiling.
It is completely valid to feel uneasy about tech layoffs and organizational restructuring. However, the macro trend isn't that management is disappearing; rather, companies are shrinking middle-management layers that act as mere "info-passers" and aggressively favoring high-agency, highly technical leaders who know how to execution-manage complex systems.
Your background as a Cloud Engineer is a massive safety net here. Let’s break down your target roles and how to build that foundation.
TAM vs. TPM: The AI Risk Assessment
Both Technical Account Manager (TAM) and Technical Program Manager (TPM) are highly resilient to automation, but they face different types of pressure in the current landscape.
1. Technical Account Manager (TAM)
The Role: Post-sales advocacy, unblocking enterprise clients, and cloud spend/architecture optimization.
AI Impact: Low-to-Medium. While basic support tickets and tier-1 troubleshooting are increasingly automated by AI, enterprise TAM execution relies heavily on trust, political navigation, and high-stakes escalation handling.
Your Advantage: Enterprise clients do not want an AI telling them why their multi-million dollar cloud infrastructure dropped offline. They want an engineer who can translate technical chaos into a clear business remediation plan.
2. Technical Program Manager (TPM)
The Role: Driving cross-functional technical initiatives, mapping dependencies, and unblocking engineering teams.
AI Impact: Medium. Standard project coordination (tracking JIRA tickets, writing status updates, and meeting notes) has been heavily optimized by AI workflows. Tech companies are shifting toward smaller "AI-native pods" with fewer management layers.
The Reality: The actual human friction of engineering—getting three siloed teams to agree on a shared API design or convincing a VP to shift resources—cannot be automated. TPMs who act as strategic execution drivers are safer than ever; TPMs who act as glorified scribes are at risk.
How to Build a Firm Management Foundation
Since you are already inside a company where you have strong institutional trust, do not wait to change companies to start managing. The safest way to transition is to build your portfolio right where you are.
1. Shift from "How" to "Why" & "How Much"
As a cloud engineer, your brain defaults to how to build a resilient architecture. To step into leadership, you must lead with business metrics.
The Action: Stop just closing tickets. Start tracking the business impact of your work. Did your cloud optimization save the company $50,000/month? Did your automation decrease deployment times by 20%, allowing product teams to ship faster? Put these metrics on your resume immediately.
2. Take Over "Accidental" Management Duties
Leadership is taken, not given. Look for management gaps in your current team that your manager hates doing or doesn't have time for.
For a TPM Track: Volunteer to lead the next cross-team migration or major infrastructure upgrade. Own the timeline, coordinate the stakeholders, write the status updates, and handle the dependencies.
For a TAM Track: Ask to be the primary technical interface for one of your company’s largest or most problematic clients. Practice translating complex cloud issues into business risk or savings for non-technical stakeholders.
3. Close the "Soft Skills" Gap Explicitly
The biggest trap for transitioning engineers is trying to solve people problems with engineering logic. Management requires high emotional intelligence (EQ) and negotiation skills.
The Strategy: Actively study negotiation and communication. Read Crucial Conversations or Never Split the Difference.
The Practice: In meetings, practice active listening. Instead of jumping to the technical fix, try to understand the commercial or organizational constraint driving the request.
Your Next Steps
Since you’ve been at the same company for 8 years, you are likely facing an internal perception lock (they see you as the reliable cloud engineer, not a director).
The Internal Pitch: Sit down with your manager. Say: "I’ve loved driving our cloud infrastructure for 8 years, but my career goal is to transition into a TPM/TAM track. What milestones do I need to hit over the next six months to earn a pilot project leading a cross-functional initiative?"
The External Pivot: Optimize your resume to highlight scale, scope, and cross-functional leadership over specific programming languages or tools. If your current company won't give you the title or the market-rate pay, use your internal stretch projects to jump to a TPM or TAM role elsewhere.
What are the skills I should pick up to pivot to AI centric roles from consulting ?
I am currently working in the consulting industry in India. I am an electrical engineer with an MBA degree. Been working in consulting for than three years. I want to pivot to another industry. Probably where AI is used or something more futuristic. Please guide on the skills that I can acquire to help me with that pivot.
Jobadvisor
Good — that combo (engineering + MBA + consulting + basic Python/SQL) is actually a strong launchpad for AI strategy work. Firms don't need you to become an ML engineer; they need people who can bridge business problems and technical feasibility, which is exactly your consulting instinct. Here's how I'd sequence the pivot.
1. Build "AI literacy that a technical team respects" You don't need to build models, but you need enough depth that engineers don't have to dumb things down for you and clients trust your judgment on feasibility/timelines/cost.
- Core concepts: supervised vs unsupervised learning, how LLMs work (tokens, embeddings, context windows, fine-tuning vs RAG vs prompting), what "agents" actually are, basics of model evaluation, and where AI reliably fails (hallucination, data drift, bias).
- Good low-effort route: Andrew Ng's "AI for Everyone" and "Generative AI for Everyone" (Coursera), plus Google's or Microsoft's AI fundamentals courses. These are fast and give you vocabulary + mental models, which is 80% of what's needed in strategy conversations.
2. Deepen your Python/SQL just enough to speak fluently Not to code production systems, but so you can read a data pipeline, sanity-check a model output, or build a quick proof-of-concept yourself.
- Python: pandas, basic scikit-learn, and enough to call an LLM API (OpenAI/Anthropic API) and build a small RAG or agent demo.
- This matters a lot for AI strategy roles now — being able to prototype a small PoC yourself (even a rough one) is a huge differentiator versus consultants who can only talk about AI.
3. Learn the "AI strategy" specific toolkit This is the part that's genuinely different from generic consulting skills:
- AI use-case identification & prioritization frameworks (value vs feasibility matrices, build-vs-buy decisions for AI)
- Responsible AI / AI governance basics — EU AI Act, data privacy implications, model risk management. This is increasingly a real client need and few consultants know it well.
- Change management for AI adoption — since most AI project failures are organizational, not technical, and this plays directly to your consulting strengths.
- Vendor/platform landscape — know the differences between OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex; understand enterprise AI stacks (data platforms, MLOps basics like what "deploying a model" actually involves).
4. Get a credential or two that signal seriousness Not strictly necessary, but useful for resume screening:
- A generative AI or AI strategy certificate (Coursera/edX from Wharton, MIT, or Google Cloud)
- Optionally a data/AI-focused MBA elective-style program if your firm sponsors L&D
5. Build proof, not just credentials Consulting hiring for AI practices weighs "have you actually done something" heavily:
- Write 1–2 case studies or LinkedIn articles analyzing a real AI implementation (e.g., "How Bank X used AI for fraud detection — and what it cost them to get wrong")
- Build a small demo project (a RAG chatbot, an AI-powered dashboard) — even a weekend project signals initiative
- Try to get staffed on any AI-adjacent project at your current firm, even peripherally — internal mobility is usually the fastest path in
6. Position yourself internally first Most large consulting firms (Big 4, Accenture, McKinsey/BCG/Bain) now have dedicated AI/GenAI practices and are actively pulling people in from adjacent teams. Given you're already inside consulting, an internal transfer to your firm's AI practice is often faster and lower-risk than an external jump — and then external opportunities open up with that stamp on your resume.
If you want, I can sketch a rough 3-6 month week-by-week learning plan, or help you rework your resume/LinkedIn to position your engineering + MBA + consulting background specifically for AI strategy roles. Which would be more useful right now?
How do I get a remote semi flexible job?
So I am 18 and live in the middle of the woods and can't drive! The closest hiring place is about 3 miles away, and im pretty sure I'm on their no-hire list
I do have things going on, I am busy almost every single day with friends, family, and hobbies. Most are in the evening, but the question remains the same.
I am trying to get a remote job that doesn't have to be 100% flexible, but in case something happens, I can go. I just REALLY need is remote, from my PC.
I am trying to freelance (I kinda suck at it) but I can do Hella stuff, I went to trade school for cybersecurity, I write, I game, I mean, I do a lot constantly not even mentioning the sword fighting and you get it.
I am just looking for something to keep me afloat along with my freelancing. I am getting paid a very small amput by freelancing but I need something more permanent
Jobadvisor
That's a really common bind—rural, no license, needing income but locked into evening commitments. The good news: remote work is one of the few paths that doesn't care where you live or when you're free, as long as you're clear about your hours upfront. Here's how I'd approach it.
Fastest wins: flexible micro-work to stabilize income right now
These don't pay great, but they're easy to get, remote, and you set your own hours around your evenings:
- Search/ad quality evaluation — Appen, TELUS International (AI Community), Lionbridge. Async, part-time, pays weekly/biweekly, no experience needed. Good bridge income.
- Transcription/captioning — Rev, GoTranscript. Pays per project, work whenever.
- Content moderation / trust & safety contract work — some platforms hire remote part-time moderators for gaming communities or Discord servers, which could suit your gaming background specifically.
- Online proctoring (ProctorU, Examity) — usually scheduled shifts but often morning/afternoon, which fits your evening-busy schedule.
Actual part-time "jobs" with set (but limited) hours
Companies that hire remote customer support/chat agents and let you bid on shifts:
- TTEC, Concentrix, Sitel, Working Solutions, Liveops — these do remote customer service/chat support, often 20-30 hrs/week, and many use shift-bidding so you can grab daytime slots and protect your evenings.
- Chat-only (not phone) roles exist at several of these — worth filtering for if phone calls aren't your thing.
Leaning into your cybersecurity trade school background
This is your strongest differentiator, but entry-level cyber roles almost always want a cert first:
- Get CompTIA Security+ if you don't have it yet — it's the single most recognized entry credential and is achievable through self-study in a few months.
- Once certified, look for remote Tier 1 SOC Analyst or IT Help Desk roles — many MSPs (managed service providers) hire remote entry-level analysts, and some genuinely do 100% remote with fixed shifts you can pick.
- In the meantime, build a visible portfolio: TryHackMe or HackTheBox progress, a home-lab writeup, a GitHub with a couple of small security projects. Cyber hiring managers care about demonstrated curiosity more than degrees at entry level.
On the freelancing side
"I kinda suck at it" is usually a positioning problem, not a skill problem. A few quick fixes:
- Niche down. "I write" is invisible on Upwork/Fiverr; "I write gaming guides and Discord community content" gets found.
- Use writing + gaming + cyber trade school as a combo angle — e.g., writing security-awareness content for small businesses, or gaming community documentation/moderation guides. That's a much less crowded lane than generic freelance writing.
Given your specific mix — is the cybersecurity path (aiming for Security+ then a remote analyst/help desk role) the direction you want to prioritize, or would you rather I focus on stabilizing income fast through the gig-style options first?
Will it make me look bad if I asked to reschedule a job interview?
Hello everyone, I need an advice. I have already done my initial interview with this company. Today, they texted me that they are impressed with my resume and that they want to schedule another interview. The problem is- they want the interview today and I have a prior commitment that’s been planned few days before that coincides with the time of the interview. I asked the representative if it would be possible reschedule the interview. Would it make a bad impression on me if I asked them to reschedule my interview?
Jobadvisor
The short answer is: No, it will not make you look bad. In fact, you handled this exactly the right way.
Here is why you shouldn't worry, along with a few tips on how to keep things moving forward smoothly.
Why You’re in the Clear
The timeline is unreasonable on their end: Expecting a candidate to drop everything for a same-day interview is highly unusual. Most companies give at least 24 to 48 hours' notice, if not a week.
It shows you have a life and commitments: Having prior commitments doesn't make you look unprofessional; it makes you look like a busy, functional adult.
Honoring commitments is a good trait: If you had canceled a long-standing plan at the absolute last minute for them, it might actually signal that you struggle with boundaries or scheduling.
What to Do Next
Since you already asked to reschedule, you are just waiting on their reply. When they get back to you, keep these quick tips in mind:
Be proactive with your availability: Don't just say, "I can't make it." Give them 2 or 3 specific blocks of time over the next few days when you are free. (e.g., "I am available tomorrow between 1 PM and 4 PM, or anytime Friday morning.")
Keep the reason vague but professional: You don't need to over-explain or give them a detailed itinerary of your day. A simple, "I have a prior commitment at that time that I cannot move" is perfect.
Gauge their reaction: How a company responds to a reasonable request to reschedule tells you a lot about their culture. If they get defensive, rigid, or rescinded the offer just because you couldn't join a meeting with zero notice, consider it a massive red flag.
You’ve already passed the initial screen and they explicitly said they are impressed with you—they aren't going to throw your resume away just because you have a life on a random Tuesday.
Did they give you an online scheduling link, or are you waiting for a direct reply from the coordinator?