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I’ve been on both sides. I spent a few years as an engineering manager. The majority of my career as a software developer. It’s not a bullshit job. It’s someti

I’ve been on both sides. I spent a few years as an engineering manager. The majority of my career as a software developer. It’s not a bullshit job. It’s sometimes a bullshit management job. Like working for the benefit of engineers on your team who view your role as bullshit. And dealing with negotiating between marketing, sales, founders, and being the voice for engineering. There’s a lot of bullshit there some times. I appreciate good managers. It’s a tough job. You don’t always know the right thing to say but when you get it wrong people really make you pay for it. It takes resolve and pragmatism to step in front and take the brunt of responsibility for the teams output and shining the light of success on your team and away from yourself.

strix_varius 4y ago
I've also been on both sides, and I think that it is sometimes a bullshit job. I've spent a few years as a BS EM and a few years as a legit one. Your EM role might be bullshit if... - You're managing fewer than four reports. - You were previously a low-performing engineer & you find it easier to hide your lack of technical competency in the management track. - You spend a lot of your time in broadly-attended meetings about topics on which you are not a direct decision-maker. It's easier to coast as a bullshit EM than as a bullshit engineer because your impact is one step removed. When an engineer ships a bug-ridden mess, they get pinged by QA/product/whoever. When a manager hires an engineer who ships bug-ridden messes, the manager rarely faces consequences. When a manager lacks the backbone to put folks dragging down a team on a PIP, they're rarely called on it. When a manager lacks the backbone to advocate for their best engineers, those engineers leave and the EM gets to interpret for their boss "why" the engineer left. I doubt many say, "because I failed to advocate for their career" or "because they were sick of me misinterpreting the technical situation my team is in." So engineering management is an attractive field for engineers who are technically incompetent, and by definition those folks are poorly equipped to manage technical teams.

strix_varius 4y ago

I've also been on both sides, and I think that it is sometimes a bullshit job. I've spent a few years as a BS EM and a few years as a legit one. Your EM role might be bullshit if... - You're managing fewer than four reports. - You were previously a low-performing engineer & you find it easier to hide your lack of technical competency in the management track. - You spend a lot of your time in broadly-attended meetings about topics on which you are not a direct decision-maker. It's easier to coast as a bullshit EM than as a bullshit engineer because your impact is one step removed. When an engineer ships a bug-ridden mess, they get pinged by QA/product/whoever. When a manager hires an engineer who ships bug-ridden messes, the manager rarely faces consequences. When a manager lacks the backbone to put folks dragging down a team on a PIP, they're rarely called on it. When a manager lacks the backbone to advocate for their best engineers, those engineers leave and the EM gets to interpret for their boss "why" the engineer left. I doubt many say, "because I failed to advocate for their career" or "because they were sick of me misinterpreting the technical situation my team is in." So engineering management is an attractive field for engineers who are technically incompetent, and by definition those folks are poorly equipped to manage technical teams.