Engineering Manager

Job Transitioning Due to Frustration in Current Role

It is important to know when to stay in a job and when to move on. If you are looking to exit gracefully, it is important to keep your current role and create a plan for the future. When talking to companies, focus on the people in the organization. Additionally, people tend to stay in their roles too long and leave their jobs too late. It is important to find a job where you can have a good time and do your best work.

Investigating a Variety of Career Paths

This article is about the journey of an engineer who had an undergraduate degree in biology and a Master's in computer science. He began an internship in software testing and eventually became a project manager. He then realized he wanted something more technical and decided to look into product management. He had informational meetings with different product managers to gain insight into the role and eventually left the company he was working for because he wasn't able to get the career growth he was seeking. He then received a cold call about a test manager job which led him to his current role as an engineering manager. He learned that being patient isn't necessarily the correct way to solve things, to ask for what you want, and that you may have to move to a different team or company to get the career growth you want.

Principles to Set as a New Manager

As a new manager, it is important to strive for an autonomous team without bottlenecking. To do this, remain operational to fill in gaps, stay empathetic while setting limits, rely on facts, and avoid being the bridge between team members. Investing in understanding and reaching autonomy is difficult, but will pay off in the long run.

Creating a Full-Bodied Manager Career Trajectory

This article outlines the steps taken to set up a management system for a growing company with two different career paths for engineers: software engineer and engineering manager. Actions taken included creating a presentation and spreadsheet with detailed information, and a quarterly review process with a level up ceremony. The lesson learned was that it is important to make the career paths clear early on and to make the spreadsheet part of the employees' DNA. Additionally, tech leads should not be put in the manager role as they need a manager themselves.

How to Manage Managers

This article is about the challenges of being one of the first few employees of a travel-based company and how to overcome them. The author emphasizes the importance of clear expectations, 1:1s, and good people skills. They also learned to take criticism and challenges, as well as to look for improvements and personal development opportunities.

Motivating a Quiet, Underperforming Engineer

When a senior engineer on a high performing team was underperforming, the manager took action to understand the issue. After validating his assumptions, the manager subtly hinted at missed opportunities and asked the engineer to compare his level to the rest of the team. Through this, the manager realized the engineer lacked confidence and encouraged him to take risks and not be afraid to make mistakes. The manager learned that validating assumptions, creating a safe environment, and avoiding pep talks are important for managing underperformers.