Ask HN: What does it mean/take to be a good engineering manager?

#1

Post by satyajith » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 12:43 AM UTC

I recently got rejected by a FAANG company for the role of an engineering manager. My hunch is that my lack of people management experience comes through (but who knows).

My current title is “Director” in a traditional retail company (not a tech or engineering-first company). Despite the seniority I have had zero direct reports in my career. I have “managed” consultants throughout my career which has mostly meant assigning tasks, talking through designs with them, conducting occasional 1:1s, providing feedback and conveying appreciation on a job well done, providing business context around a project or in general, with little to no control over their career growth and development.

The feedback I have received is positive - “feel supported”, “has a calming effect on the team during high-pressure/stress situations”, “always willing to provide detailed technical and business info”, “great communicator”, etc. I also don’t see consultants as “not-employees” and treat them the same as an employee.

All this combined with a general liking towards people and slightly extroverted nature made me assume that I have the necessary qualities for an engineering manager at a big tech company too. But I have no idea what it actually means to build a team, have direct reports and manage their careers and development.

Any and all thoughts are appreciated but these questions come to mind:

* In what ways are managing consultants and managing employees different especially in FAANG/big tech companies? * Should I be honest about my (lack of) people management experience during interviews or should I answer using my consultant-management experience? * What are some day to day examples of the type of tasks/decisions as an engineering manager? * How is being a manager different than being a Tech Lead in a tech company?

Re: Ask HN: What does it mean/take to be a good engineering manager?

#2

Post by 0xFACEFEED » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 1:23 AM UTC

Experiences vary wildly so take my with a grain of salt. From what I've seen though good EM positions are acquired more from social engineering than anything else. It's all about who you know. Get to the know the right people, work at darling companies, take a risk on a startup that ends up going big, etc. Moving from a non-tech retail company sounds extremely boring to anyone interviewing you (no offense).

My personal take on this is it's very difficult to measure an EM's ability before hiring. The job just feels really subjective with infinite variations on how to approach it. So what you need is some other kind of je ne sais quoi to get people excited about you. Maybe you have a lot of mutual contacts that praise you highly. Maybe you come in as part of an acquisition and the acquiring company has a lot of respect for you. Stuff like that. Either way I don't think the ability to do the day-to-day work is a good enough to get hired (which sucks, but remember "grain of salt").

Tasks and differences from tech lead vary between companies. In general though an EM isn't writing as much code. Mostly focused on coordinating meetings, hiring, and making sure their team's projects are headed in the right direction. EMs also tend have a strong influence on the engineering culture (establishing and enforcing it). So for example an EM might push heavily for TDD and pair programming on their team while another EM might focus on other stuff like rapid prototyping.

Tech lead OTOH may also influence a decision on TDD/pairing from the previous example, but not exactly establish the guideline for the team to do it. Tech lead would choose the testing framework not the EM. OTOH EMs might have a strong influence over larger engineering decisions (like using K8s or not).

Re: Ask HN: What does it mean/take to be a good engineering manager?

#3

Post by satyajith » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 2:31 AM UTC

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #2

Experiences vary wildly so take my with a grain of salt. From what I've seen though good EM positions are acquired more from social engineering than anything else. It's all about who you know. Get to the know the right people, work at darling companies, take a risk on a startup that ends up going big, etc. Moving from a non-tech retail company sounds extremely boring to anyone interviewing you (no offense). My person…

"Moving from a non-tech retail company sounds extremely boring to anyone interviewing you (no offense)."

This makes complete sense. If I were on the hiring side, I'd be skeptical as well. What's interesting to hear is that even in big tech companies with established hiring processes getting to know the right people matters.

"Either way I don't think the ability to do the day-to-day work is a good enough to get hired"

This makes a lot of sense. I'm reading it as "you are able to showcase some extraordinary quality or success in your previous work during the interview or through someone vouching for you" without which there's no compelling reason to hire you.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Re: Ask HN: What does it mean/take to be a good engineering manager?

#4

Post by 0xFACEFEED » Sun, Apr 26, 2020, 3:08 AM UTC

satyajith wrote: post #3

0xFACEFEED wrote: post #2

Experiences vary wildly so take my with a grain of salt. From what I've seen though good EM positions are acquired more from social engineering than anything else. It's all about who you know. Get to the know the right people, work at darling companies, take a risk on a startup that ends up going big, etc. Moving from a non-tech retail company sounds extremely boring to anyone interviewing you (no offense). My person…

"Moving from a non-tech retail company sounds extremely boring to anyone interviewing you (no offense)." This makes complete sense. If I were on the hiring side, I'd be skeptical as well. What's interesting to hear is that even in big tech companies with established hiring processes getting to know the right people matters. "Either way I don't think the ability to do the day-to-day work is a good enough to get hired"…

> What's interesting to hear is that even in big tech companies with established hiring processes getting to know the right people matters.

Even more so with big tech companies IMO. The same isn't true for IC work though.

It kinda makes sense too. An IC can demonstrate their ability to add value through a rigorous technical interview process. But an EM? Impossible to measure so you can only look to references and past work.