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> - Thinking Engineers don't care about reasons for doing things This sticks out to me. I think there's a growing dichotomy in industry among engineering mana

> - Thinking Engineers don't care about reasons for doing things This sticks out to me. I think there's a growing dichotomy in industry among engineering managers. There are those that don't want their engineers to care about the business reasons and just be cogs, maximizing their productivity. These tend to be prevalent in the FAANGs, in my experience. Then there are those who prioritize like you do, maximizing engineer impact. I know that I can only function in this type of organization. I think both sides are convinced that they are right...and maybe they are...but I sure wish it were easier to identify engineering organizations by their type ahead of hire.

jeffinpdx 6y ago
"but I sure wish it were easier to identify engineering organizations by their type ahead of hire." You can make it easier before joining. During the interview process, ask one of the interviewers if they can share an example of how the organization makes decisions in a quantitative and/or qualitative way. If they don't mention a Mode/Amplitude/whatever report with user data and/or talk about some user interviews (and the concomitant report) then it's probably not a data-driven process. Or the data isn't shared beyond Leadership. And if they roll their eyes or say, "We just build what the CEO or Sales wants" then you have even more evidence that this might the kind of place where you'll just take direction and not get a clear reason.