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> I'm gladly reporting that he managed to do that and has indeed been promoted, and I still can't say what he does for a living apart from 'enable engineers to

> I'm gladly reporting that he managed to do that and has indeed been promoted, and I still can't say what he does for a living apart from 'enable engineers to grow their careers.' And that is the kind of person that survives purges like the one Meta is doing. The managers that did not grow an empire, the managers that did their jobs and cared for their teams are the ones that will be removed. When an organization incentivizes managers, directors and vice-presidents to grow empires, when the axe comes down it does it on the people that did not play the game. I do not understand why some people gets so happy when management gets the axe. Do you think that good managers that cared for the team instead of their own career are the ones that stay?

ThalesX 4y ago
> I do not understand why some people gets so happy when management gets the axe. Do you think that good managers that cared for the team instead of their own career are the ones that stay? I am not happy for any axing. In case this question was directed at me. I am happy for expecting managers to also be able to contribute to the product instead of just managing people.
- scarface74 4y ago
  The skills I want from a good manager are mostly orthogonal to what I want from a coworker working on a project
  - wonderwonder 4y ago
    I am in a weird spot where I am a manager and expected to be an individual contributor. I am also supposed to play several other roles as well. You are right, the skill sets are vastly different. It is incredibly difficult to have to context switch between manager mind set and developer multiple times a day. Both of my roles likely suffer due to my restrictions on being able to focus on one.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      I can tell you from experience that you are going to suck at both. As a code contributor, you’re not going to be able to keep your commitments because of management responsibility and as a manager you’re not going to have time to do either career development for your team or be in the room to play politics for your team. The only time that I’ve seen that work is when my former CTO would do non production code as a research product or a proof of concept that he would give to someone else to make production ready. Also, the people you report to aren’t going to be as willing to give you honest feedback. As an IC, I can give a suggestion to my team and I have to convince them based on my ideas. They will free to push back. As a manager, many won’t. I work with a lot of people who for whatever reason won’t say anything openly when they feel something is wrong. Even when it’s not their manager - ie a project manager. I’ve never been afraid to voice my opinion and “disagree and commit” (how do you say where you work without saying where you work). But then again I’m older (49), more financially secure and not here on H1B [1]. [1] That last statement is not meant to rail against H1B visa holders. I think the entire H1B visa system sucks and is inhumane for the people who have to deal with it precisely because they have to deal with shit that they shouldn’t have to.
      - wonderwonder 4y ago
        You are 100% correct. I manage a team now that I don't really have time to guide and am probably stricter with them than I need to be because of it. Additionally I am constantly behind on my deliverables to Sr. leadership because I don't have time to focus on the constant flow of busy work they keep giving me because they need data for some report to their leaders. I have no one that I can delegate this work too. I'm also working in an agile environment and have no scrum master. In addition I don't have time to think, I am just constantly pinged and in meetings. My blocked time on the calendar is not respected. Yesterday I had 9 meetings. Its impossible to do any type of deep work. Honestly its really not great. Salary is helpful though. I'm done complaining now :)
        scarface74 4y ago
        As they would say in r/cscareerquestions… If you care about total compensation, “grind LeetCode and work for a FAANG” (haha only serious) I went from the Dev lead in 2016 in a medium size health care company, to a senior dev/de facto “cloud architect” at a startup to mid level “cloud consultant” at $BigTech. Each job came with more money - and the current one a step change in compensation - and less responsibility and less headaches.

ThalesX 4y ago

> I do not understand why some people gets so happy when management gets the axe. Do you think that good managers that cared for the team instead of their own career are the ones that stay? I am not happy for any axing. In case this question was directed at me. I am happy for expecting managers to also be able to contribute to the product instead of just managing people.

scarface74 4y ago
The skills I want from a good manager are mostly orthogonal to what I want from a coworker working on a project
- wonderwonder 4y ago
  I am in a weird spot where I am a manager and expected to be an individual contributor. I am also supposed to play several other roles as well. You are right, the skill sets are vastly different. It is incredibly difficult to have to context switch between manager mind set and developer multiple times a day. Both of my roles likely suffer due to my restrictions on being able to focus on one.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    I can tell you from experience that you are going to suck at both. As a code contributor, you’re not going to be able to keep your commitments because of management responsibility and as a manager you’re not going to have time to do either career development for your team or be in the room to play politics for your team. The only time that I’ve seen that work is when my former CTO would do non production code as a research product or a proof of concept that he would give to someone else to make production ready. Also, the people you report to aren’t going to be as willing to give you honest feedback. As an IC, I can give a suggestion to my team and I have to convince them based on my ideas. They will free to push back. As a manager, many won’t. I work with a lot of people who for whatever reason won’t say anything openly when they feel something is wrong. Even when it’s not their manager - ie a project manager. I’ve never been afraid to voice my opinion and “disagree and commit” (how do you say where you work without saying where you work). But then again I’m older (49), more financially secure and not here on H1B [1]. [1] That last statement is not meant to rail against H1B visa holders. I think the entire H1B visa system sucks and is inhumane for the people who have to deal with it precisely because they have to deal with shit that they shouldn’t have to.
    - wonderwonder 4y ago
      You are 100% correct. I manage a team now that I don't really have time to guide and am probably stricter with them than I need to be because of it. Additionally I am constantly behind on my deliverables to Sr. leadership because I don't have time to focus on the constant flow of busy work they keep giving me because they need data for some report to their leaders. I have no one that I can delegate this work too. I'm also working in an agile environment and have no scrum master. In addition I don't have time to think, I am just constantly pinged and in meetings. My blocked time on the calendar is not respected. Yesterday I had 9 meetings. Its impossible to do any type of deep work. Honestly its really not great. Salary is helpful though. I'm done complaining now :)
      - scarface74 4y ago
        As they would say in r/cscareerquestions… If you care about total compensation, “grind LeetCode and work for a FAANG” (haha only serious) I went from the Dev lead in 2016 in a medium size health care company, to a senior dev/de facto “cloud architect” at a startup to mid level “cloud consultant” at $BigTech. Each job came with more money - and the current one a step change in compensation - and less responsibility and less headaches.