Whenever I see an article titled "should (insert non-engineering position) at an engineering company learn engineering" the answer is yes. There's studies that

Whenever I see an article titled "should (insert non-engineering position) at an engineering company learn engineering" the answer is yes. There's studies that show the biggest source of satisfaction with your boss is whether they're good at your job. It's also well known that people like others like themselves, and that smart people are much better at figuring out if the person they're talking to is also smart. What does this point to? That your very best engineers should be the ones hiring more engineers. In the endless quest to save money many companies have relegated this task to corporate drones. I have no proof... but I would gamble a large part of the reason that bigger corporations end up with mediocre engineers and management is because they forget how to hire good people. At the startup stage you're far more likely to see star studded teams, small groups of people that are all absolutely brilliant. My belief is that this is largely to relegating hiring to cheaper labor once the company grows past a certain point. I know of a lot of unicorns where the founding team has made a point to personally interview every engineer. Some of them until well past 1000 employees. You'll hear people say "I can't believe this billionaire is wasting his time interview janitors". What needs to be understood is that some of us, me included, believe that who you hire is the most important decision your company makes.