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Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

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Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#221

Post by oculusthrift »

dv_dt wrote: post #190
oculusthrift wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you watch Noam Chomsky's 'Requiem for the American Dream' on Netflix it talks about how the heads of all these companies used to be engineers but at some point all the finance/MBA type of people started dominating these positions. This also happened in Washington and now essentially the whole world is owned/run by Finance/MBA types who focus on short term earnings instead of value creation.

Focus on is maybe slightly missing the point, they may not even have the background to appreciate or imagine the possibility of value creation that is not in their area of expertise. So certain possibilities are essentially invisible to those companies. It's made worse because it's the large successful corporations that actually have the resources to fix problems that few other players can even imagine (even with ven…

At points during the last decade, 40 pct of profits were made by the Finance sector. And companies like GE can make a billion dollars by lobbying for tax loopholes rather than creating new products. So this seems like the type of stuff they focus on.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#222

Post by eli »

analog31 wrote: post #147
pjungwir wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my in-laws is a geologist who works for the oil companies, and he tells me in that industry almost all the big executives are engineers. Since he's been in the news, take Rex Tillerson. His degree is in engineering. Or take any of "the professions": law, accounting, medicine, business consulting, engineering firms. In all those cases you have "partners" who have moved into sales and management. Sometimes they…

My hypothesis is that the MBA degree is largely valued by other people with MBA degrees, so you have pockets of high MBA concentration that grow within specific businesses. MBA's hire other MBA's, but also encourage their most promising subordinates to get MBA's.

You don't think any of the skills needed to manage people or businesses can be taught in school?

I feel very fortunate that one of my cofounders has an MBA. We'd be much worse off if I had to build financial models and negotiate contracts and motivate the team myself.

Having an MBA obviously doesn't automatically qualify you to manage a dev team (nor does being a good engineer), but speaking from my first hand experience, the skills have value.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#223

Post by stmfreak »

sage76 wrote: post #110

At a unicorn I was working at, MBAs were being hired to be engineering managers. I did not see a single engineer promoted to management, it was mostly all MBAs. The few I had direct contact were really useless at helping engineers out, all I ever heard from them was "Just get it done.". If I asked for help, they'd say "Well who else is gonna do it then?". I felt demoralised and lost some of my confidence. But the com…

People have an uncanny affinity for the familiar. A company founded by MBA graduates will likely have a preference for more MBA graduates. Engineers prefer engineers. Use that to guide your selection process, but I've tried to find companies that value a balance.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#224

Post by nunez »

_jgvg wrote: post #219
nunez wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't these things be learned by reading?

Yes, they can, but you can only create "muscle memory" by practice. And practice includes reading cases, trying to figure things out and getting it wrong, discussing how to do it and so on. You can read a hundred books about coding, but until you actually try, you don't really know anything. So a technical background with an MBA can be a killer combination. You know how things work across the company, and that gives…

That's fair!

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#225

Post by c0achmcguirk »

vijucat wrote: post #168
acchow wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When you get an MBA, it's a huge signal to an employer that you accomplished something What?

That you bring some core competencies to the table that are actionable [1]. That you can calc the ROI on data-driven paradigm shifts [1]. That you can ensure there are enough boots on the ground to manage customer expectations. That you can peel the onion on our go-to markets and incentivize monetizable synergies leading to win-win solutions [2]. That you have become an irreplaceable employee, that you're a girl who…

Comment started out good, then started to flag, then it went to the moon.

Outstanding.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#226

Post by iakh »

neutralid wrote: post #207
nunez wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't these things be learned by reading?

Micro-/macroeconomics and computer science (queueing theory) could cover most of the key items ... but people would need to understand the connections / generalizations / limitations. Perhaps MBAs make it obvious with case studies and in-class debates.

I have BS in EE, went into software development and got an MBA after becoming a software manager. The two most impactful subjects that really changed the way I think were Queuing Theory and Real Options Valuations.

You don't need an MBA to learn about these yourself, but without an MBA I probably would have come across Queuing Theory (in the form of Kan Ban), but likely never Real Options Valuations.

So if anybody here is considering an MBA, look into both subjects and see if another half a dozen or so similar and related topics might be interesting to you.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#227

Post by sage76 »

_jgvg wrote: post #198
DashRattlesnake wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My hypothesis is that the MBA degree is largely valued by other people with MBA degrees, so you have pockets of high MBA concentration that grow within specific businesses. I have a friend who got a specialist business degree and then got an MBA. I don't really recall him ever really talking about what he studied or learned during the MBA, but he did talk a lot about networking. A lot of the program consisted of ta…

I have an undergrad in computer engineering, and an MBA from a top-10 or top-5 (depending who you ask) school. I learned a LOT from it, even though my experience after my undergrad degree was mostly in business. Businesses, finance markets are far more complex than people usually think, and if you like to learn, an MBA is a great way to build a solid base for being a product manager, or a director who actually unders…

Hate to be blunt, but first of all, the things you pointed out are really common knowledge/common sense, and secondly, most of these are not necessary to be an engineering manager at all. 'No alpha' is something that even Warren Buffet has been talking about, and it doesn't impact any EM's job day to day.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#228

Post by collyw »

paulddraper wrote: post #217
nunez wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't these things be learned by reading?

Virtually everything can be learned by reading.

I am pretty sure you couldn't learn whitewater kayaking or downhill skiing from reading.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#229

Post by dahauns »

dagw wrote: post #68
dahauns wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the fundamental principles of software engineering haven't changed a whole lot since then. Not sure I agree with that. A lot of todays best practices and workflows (and the tech to go with it), especially considering team and release management, simply weren't around or at least widespread even twenty years ago. You know, stuff like CI, TDD, DVCS etc. etc.

A lot of todays best practices and workflows... Why does my boss have to know anything about that? The technical lead or senior developer(s) for each project should be the ones making decisions about those sorts of implementation details.

Those aren't mere "implementation details". Those are aspects that influence the whole process, up to strategic decisions.

Re: Employees are happier when led by people with deep expertise

#230

Post by collyw »

temp246810 wrote: post #112

I'll throw in an alternative perspective: I don't care so much about expertise, but about just raw intelligence. Talk to a really smart person about your engineering problem, and even if they are not an engineer they will give you good advice. Ditto for sales, marketing, etc. I've always been happy when I can tell the person that is managing me is a few steps ahead of me, allows me to learn from them and actually mak…

A really smart person would probably admit that they weren't the best person to deal with a problem outside of their own area of expertise.
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