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My tech lead is an idiot

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My tech lead is an idiot

#1

Post by gnee »

His code is terrible, and he’s intuitions are usually super wrong. And to top it off, he is not very productive — our junior engineers are lapping him on tickets closed.

Yet this guy outranks most our team by two levels. But my manager is not very technical, so he can’t detect his BS (and he is somewhat of an idiot himself).

But this guy is very gregarious and extroverted — the business folks like him.

I am super annoyed because I have to fix this guys bugs, and ACTUALLY do the technical leading myself — yet I get no credit. I’m ready to quit this job or make some kind of lateral move to another team. What should I do?

Re: My tech lead is an idiot

#3

Post by greenyoda »

> And to top it off, he is not very productive — our junior engineers are lapping him on tickets closed.

Tech leads have responsibilities that junior engineers don't have, such as architectural design, code review, mentoring junior developers, meeting with management and other groups, etc. Thus, they might spend less time on programming than junior developers and close fewer tickets. They might also be working on more complex tickets that take longer to close. (Of course, your lead might still be a lousy developer, but counting closed tickets is not a good measure of his productivity.)

> I am super annoyed because I have to fix this guys bugs, and ACTUALLY do the technical leading myself — yet I get no credit. I’m ready to quit this job or make some kind of lateral move to another team. What should I do?

Look for a new job, either on another team or at a different company. When asked why you're looking for a new job, definitely don't say your tech lead is an idiot. Talk about how you're looking for an opportunity grow your career and take on more responsibility.

Re: My tech lead is an idiot

#4

Post by fjfaase »

It is easy to blame your own weaknesses on someone else. Maybe you should read some dating books and/or work on your self-confidence. I am a very introvert person myself. There are some simple things you can do, to improve your non-verbal communication and actually make people see you for who you are and what your contributions are. Moving to another job, may actually not solve anything, because the chances of meeting another tech lead that is like your current tech lead, is very high, because it is usually the less skilled people who drift to tech lead roles.

Re: My tech lead is an idiot

#5

Post by swayson »

Top athletes appear to have a general perspective on progress and self-development. Instead of comparing oneself to others, rather compare yourself today, relative to yourself yesterday, as a gauge on deliberate and precise progress towards the desirable outcome.

Re: My tech lead is an idiot

#6

Post by cabraca »

ok lets break this down: you say that guy is "very gregarious and extroverted — the business folks like him" und your manager "is somewhat of an idiot".

could it be that your tech lead is stepping up to fix the mistakes of your manager? sounds to me like that guy might be the buffer of the team. the person that catches the shit the business folks fling at the team to allow the rest of the team to get some work done. Of course this impacts his "real" position as a tech lead.

its natural that the second in command (sounds like thats you) steps up to fill the resulting void and take over tasks. maybe you should talk to your techlead. ask (not accuse) him whats up with your observations. communication is key in those situations.

Re: My tech lead is an idiot

#7

Post by obstacle1 »

swayson wrote: post #5

Top athletes appear to have a general perspective on progress and self-development. Instead of comparing oneself to others, rather compare yourself today, relative to yourself yesterday, as a gauge on deliberate and precise progress towards the desirable outcome.

It's not an entirely relevant analogy though. It's good practice to seek mastery of craft. But an engineer in a team/organization has to navigate a system that is literally based around comparing peers, i.e. for promotions. There isn't really an objective metric for engineer performance, it's based pretty much entirely on what co-workers/managers/promo committees think of you.

This is not something athletes have to deal with, they can focus on improving personal performance and trust that it'll lead to an objective result (winning a race or game).

Re: My tech lead is an idiot

#9

Post by nscalf »

If you're unhappy with your superiors, time to jump ship. It doesn't matter if that's because of your team lead or your manager, they have the leverage over you. Nothing you can do about it.
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