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Understanding Your Options - A Key to Deploying a Management Plan That Works for Varying Levels of Experience

Mihai Fonoage

VP, Engineering at ModMed

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Problem

Imagine that roughly a month ago, two new engineering managers had been put into place within the career ladder of an unnamed company. Uncertain on how to continue the deployment of this management plan, the following question is posed. Should you take a leap of faith in hiring junior engineering managers (supervisors) or go forward with hiring someone new, with more experience?

Actions taken

Option 1: Go outside and hire a new, more experienced manager.
Option 2: Go with junior people and someone will need to be involved in their oversight for the next 6-12 months as a direct. There should never be a supervisor on their own, without any guidance. If you do not have a manager that can actually supervise, the next level up would be you. From there, however, you would return to the original juxtaposition of having your hands full, as you do now. Though in theory, you could hire those juniors who you know can achieve growth in that 6-12 month under the right conditions. You should take it upon yourself to still be hands-on with the evolution of those positions. Option 3: If you've chosen 'Option 1', you could take advantage of the more experienced hire and put one of the other positions as a junior with a promotion. This combination will work as a type of apprenticeship between the credible new hire and not quite ready junior. Ideally, you'll want to guide junior engineers from a supervisor role into a management one. Start with only giving them a handful of engineers to monitor and projects of moderate importance.

Lessons learned

  • Go with your instincts!
  • Guiding junior engineers helps them learn on the job through mentorship. The development is noticeable.
  • The apprenticeship between a new hire and junior engineer fosters growth into a new manager role.

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Mihai Fonoage

VP, Engineering at ModMed


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