Making the leap from coder to enterprise architect. Any suggestions?
This may not be the appropriate forum but I tend to trust the members of ycombinator and am not really a part of many online communities lately.
I've noticed that since last Fall my role at a major U.S. corporation has started to move away from writing code and more towards interfacing with internal business customers and providing architectural leadership and review. I am not officially an architect (yet!) because in my company we have very few architects all of which report to to the executive vice presidents (i.e. the CTO, CIO, etc).
Surprisingly I miss coding a lot less than I had feared and find myself enjoying and embracing my new position. However, now that I am seeing the world through a new lens I am no longer the expert in my field that I used to be. Also, I do not have the relationships with mentors at this level that I developed through 10 years of software development.
I was wondering if anyone else has successfully made this transition and any tips or suggestions that may be up for offer.
Right now I know that I am weak in soft skills (communication, presentations, goal setting, MS office skills, influence, leadership, etc) so if anyone has any recommendations on training or educational resources I would appreciate them.
I would like to add that it was my pursuit of running a startup that provided me the tools and mindset to get to this new elevated position and almost all of the information and motivation came from the ycombinator community.
Thanks for any suggestions or motivations, Ian