From Engineering to Management

— 8 minute read

For years I’ve felt the pull of management in tech. My best mentors were some of the amazing managers I had while getting into the industry. At a certain point, I faced a very real decision. Do I move towards the path of an architect/principal or do I pivot into a management space? If you want to keep growing professionally, these separate tracks require some very different skill sets. You either level up as a force multiplier for the organization or you start to develop the soft skills needed to foster professional growth of others.

In the last year, I moved from an individual contributor role to that of an engineering manager. It’s been a while since I’ve written here and I'm overdue on noting some early takeaways for anyone that's looking to make a similar move.

To start: management is not for everyone. Make sure you're considering it for the right reasons. You'll have several people's career paths, salary potential, and overall mental health in your hands. This shouldn't be taken lightly. You’ll need to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations, whether via coaching or advocacy on your team’s behalf. You're also likely getting almost completely out of software development day-to-day. If this is important to you, it's something you need to strongly consider.

So what exactly are the wrong reasons to get into management? Money, prestige, and growth for growth’s sake all make the list. You need to be truly committed to the development of your reports’ talents, not just your own career trajectory. Self development will follow naturally.

That said, if you're looking to take mentorship to the next level and help some wonderful people grow, management is probably the most interesting way (in my very biased opinion) to do just that.

Misconceptions

I want to start by tackling some of the misconceptions people have about management, especially in tech. Here are some common ones:

"Being a leader is a personality type or 'born' to be that way"
Like any other learned skill, leadership takes time, training, and dedication. If you can put the effort in and you care about your people, you'll find success.

"You need to be an extrovert"
Introverts can absolutely be just as successful in management. Your team isn't looking for someone that is a boisterous cheerleader, they are looking for someone that has their back and truly listens to them. We all have different social interaction styles. Leaders can come from anywhere.

"You need to be smarter than your team"
You need to be there to guard your people’s time and connect the dots on open questions, not do the work for them. In fact, the best leaders are those who effectively delegate, allowing them to remain focused on big picture thinking and opening opportunities for their team members to step up, stretch themselves, and learn new things in a safe environment.

Helpful skills

In this new career, there are traits that are going to help you ramp up quickly. Some of them might not come naturally to you, but it's important to take them as learning opportunities to continue to improve yourself. As I stated earlier, leadership is a learned skill.

The first, and arguably the most important skill to have is a strong sense of empathy. You are the first go-to for all sorts of problems, both work and personal. Meet people where they are. There will be times when people want action and there are times when they just want to be heard. This is why you need the ability to deeply listen to your team. Assess their needs and figure out where you can slot in to help.

As a manager, you’ll be working with an entire range of personality types: the deeply introverted, the very smart but cocky, and the no-nonsense executive types. Adjusting your communication style and shaping the message to your audience is key to finding success in reaching them all.

Beyond some of the "softer skills'', you'll want to practice getting better with managing your time. This means starting to understand when you are most productive in various areas: socially (communicating via 1 on 1s), writing (documentation), and completing data/math heavy tasks (forecasting / analysis of metrics or velocity). If you're like me, you are more mentally focused for data heavy tasks in the morning while fresh. I make sure to schedule my meetings around that as much as possible. Don’t be afraid to block out the time on your calendar or straight-up say “no” if you need to. This can serve as a powerful message to those around you that it's ok to protect your time in a way that allows you to be more productive.

On the topic of overall time management, get comfortable ruthlessly prioritizing tasks for both yourself and your team. There will always be far more than you can accomplish in a given quarter. Decide what's most important, work with Product or the organization to get buy-in, and try to stick with that.

Challenges ahead

For me, the hardest challenge of all was letting go of the reins and allowing my team to succeed and (especially) fail on their own. As a manager, jumping in to write code and solve problems is only going to set your people back longer term. Let folks figure things out. Sometimes you need to learn by fumbling through it on your own.

Another potential challenge could come from title and compensation changes. You're possibly going to be managing former teammates, people who are more skilled in or experienced with the tech stack than you, and people who have higher earning potential long-term. This could be a big change for someone coming in from a highly-valued individual contributor role. You can make very good money as an engineering manager, but at some companies your earning potential will be capped lower than you'd expect as an engineer at the highest levels. If money is your only goal, this is another strong consideration before making the move.

Preparing for the transition

A smart first step in your transition is finding a mentor. You'll be navigating completely new skills in this role and having someone you can lean on for support will go a long way. If your company is large enough, look internally first. Try to find formal mentorship programs or ask your leadership if they know of anyone you can pair up with. If your company is smaller (or even if not), consider reaching outside of your industry. At the end of the day, the universal truth of management is that it puts you in the people business, which means managers across industries can provide mentorship or support. There are plenty of folks willing to share their struggles and tips for navigating them. Beyond personal mentorship, leverage existing resources on the topic. I’ve added a list of online and book resources at the end of this article.

Next up is working with existing leadership to understand the priorities of your new role. You're going to have a lot of work on your plate that you might never have dealt with before. Things like performance reviews, compensation discussions, budgeting, and organizational goal setting are all probably going to be core to your new role. You need to understand the landscape of organization in order to effectively plan and advocate for your team. You'll also need to navigate the rhythms and current climate there to know how and when to advocate.

Beyond understanding your priorities, you'll need to start thinking ahead and planning out your weekly schedule. It's easy to get caught in a meeting hell. You'll now be the go-to for every question that pertains to the products and features your team oversees. Map out your 1 on 1s around the standing meetings and lump similar things together. Context switching can be a real time suck. Block out focus time as much as possible.

From here, you're going to start looking ahead. Talk to your team about their future goals and do your best to line them up to the roadmap ahead of you. Gergely Orosz has a great way of explaining goal setting as a manager (I'm paraphrasing here): "As an engineering manager, you'll need to put company first, team second, your team members third, and yourself as fourth." As a manager, you're helping connect your team to the overall company goals, each contributor to the team's goals, and yourself to each contributor’s goals.

This leads me to self care. There will be a mental and emotional burden placed on you in this new role. You’re now in charge of helping drive your team’s careers, compensation, and overall success. Remember to step away from the job from time to time, both literally and mentally. You are most effective when you have a good balance and are well rested. Take the breaks you need and stop carrying the weight of it all.

No career change is going to be easy, but there is a lot of personal fulfillment to get out of management. My personal move into management has been wildly rewarding. I fully appreciate what my aforementioned mentors had on their shoulders as they lifted me up in my career. I’m excited to continue to have the opportunity to do it for others.

Helpful resources