Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#1

Post by throwmeplease » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:01 PM UTC

I have 10 years of experience as a software engineer with various roles as a lead engineer. I have never managed anyone directly - nor hired/fired anyone. I recently applied for a manager role at a great company (not a big-5). To my surprise, they're interested in my profile and would like to start the interview process. My goal is to grow in those areas and gain a new set of skills.

This role does not involve intense coding but requires a good high level understanding of technologies. It is focusing a lot on career growth, decision making, resource allocation and mentoring.

How could I make a good impression despite the lack of management experience? I did mentor engineers, etc. in the past. Happy to hear about things I should be expecting.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#2

Post by lmcnish14 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:28 PM UTC

Read The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#3

Post by ugh123 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:31 PM UTC

You don't have the experience for the role. And that may be okay as long as you're honest and upfront about that and show a willingness to learn.

A big component of managing a dev team is performance-management- managing good and bad performers. Don't try to BS your way through that or other questions, but rather acknowledge where your gaps are and let them know that they are known unknowns rather than being oblivious to their existence.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#4

Post by thinbeige » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:33 PM UTC

Ten years and you have never led anybody? Think back, I am sure there were moments where you led/guided/coached peers or were a sparring partner.

You should sell those experiences as first steps into being a leader.

However, you should be aware that managing and coding are so different, even if it's in the same field. Managing people is tough and you learn it by doing.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#5

Post by Osmose » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:41 PM UTC

Here's some random things I'd consider green flags during an interview:

- A desire to help others accomplish their goals, not simply extract work from them. Sometimes this means moving them to another team/project or even out of the company.

- Proficiency in *-manager skills (product manager, project manager, etc.). Frontline managers often end up filling the roles that their team doesn't have anyone else for.

- You mentioned mentorship, which is great to talk about. Sometimes you're a direct mentor, sometimes you're identifying potential mentors, but it's important to understand what works well.

- For this situation in particular, be honest about the fact that you're new to management and looking to skill up. Part of managing people is understanding their career goals and how to help them move up, and understanding your own career, where you are, and where you'd like to go will illustrate that skill.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#6

Post by efm » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:44 PM UTC

Read _Behind Closed Doors The Secret of Great Management_ by Johanna Rothman and Esther Derby.

Look for opportunities to do supervision. Non-profits are always looking for help, and it makes you look well rounded on your resume. There's no substitute for doing to learn how to manage.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#7

Post by throwawayblab » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:46 PM UTC

In general you should be more than capable of explaining your lead role as a coaching role and helping people to get better. Ideally some of that experience was not just with juniors but also mid level - senior engineers.

Did you start anything up in the company - ideally yes. Shows you can spot opportunities.

Do you understand the role of the manager in this company, in the context, probably good to show some self awareness (Are you being hired in for a new team, existing team, if so why not hire internally etc.)

After that expect to explain how you deal with poor performers, how do you reward people etc.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#8

Post by sailfast » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:48 PM UTC

I'd gather you'll want to think fairly hard about scenarios you have encountered in the past where you helped a team you were on through a rough patch, or helped ship a product on time, or pull people together. You'll probably also want to have some sort of hypothesis about what makes a successful manager, what makes for a successful team, how to deal with failure, etc. If you haven't though about these things or are not interested then you may not enjoy management.

Edit: I would also come ready with any sort of anecdotes about how you took initiative to do something and managed it end to end. Could be an event, could be a product, could be a code release - but that track record is definitely an indicator.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#9

Post by sadadar » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:53 PM UTC

I don't often hire people into manager roles if they have no management experience (usually there are internal people who are looking for that career growth, if we are pulling from outside then it's about experience). That said, there are a few things that would make me at least consider it.

1) the person wants a management career path and seems to understand what it means (org builder, team player, perf reviews, hiring and firing) vs person who thinks their only option for career growth is management and thinks they've done it already as a tech lead and wanna do that role more

2) lots of cross-functional hat wearing and a clear appreciation and happiness with doing project and product management work, a willingness to do any shit work happily in order to make the team better

3) an awesome growth mindset willing to have determination in getting better at it with or without my help, lots of autonomy

4) preternatural judgement and ability to see the forest from the trees, clear potential to help us get better

Interviewed somebody like this recently and it's honestly just hard to say no

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#10

Post by ryandrake » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:53 PM UTC

thinbeige wrote: post #4

Ten years and you have never led anybody? Think back, I am sure there were moments where you led/guided/coached peers or were a sparring partner. You should sell those experiences as first steps into being a leader. However, you should be aware that managing and coding are so different, even if it's in the same field. Managing people is tough and you learn it by doing.

The author seems to be pretty clear about having been a team lead but never having directly managed anyone. Huge difference. Having a similar background myself, I can say this is probably one of the biggest hurdles if you're looking to get into management. You can talk at length about mentorship and leading through influence and judgment and all the stuff that goes with being a "technical lead" but it doesn't make much of a difference--they want someone who's had direct reports.

It's the typical hiring chicken-and-egg problem: You need experience doing X to get a job doing X. People management is no different.