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What does a Director of Engineering do?

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Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#61

Post by dchyrdvh »

ebiester wrote: post #55
dchyrdvh wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1% contribution to others is good for the manager, because he gets to take credit for the entire team. The 10% self improvement is good for that individual, because he can leverage that into a better paying role.

It depends on where you are in your career. If you are a below average developer, do like they say in the airplane and "put on your own mask before assisting others." If you are an above average developer, you will be noticed by being the person who helps others more than solving every problem. At some point in your career, your influence by your own two hands reaches a plateau. You are a senior engineer. How are the…

I've been there and only learnt that this "wait to be chosen" attitude never pays off. It's rewarded, but the reward is a pittance compared to what that energy could buy.

My advise to myself 20yo would be: learn how to deal with people, learn how organizations work, build capital and get onto the money side of things; but don't let your ego get tricked into the shiny tech lead and manager titles as those are only mirages of wealth.

Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#62

Post by irrational »

lliamander wrote: post #23

> I used to think hard work leads to promotion. This is because I didn't understand why different positions exist outside of a title change. Now I see things a bit differently. If an individual on my team is working hard, I'm going to keep them where they are because they're getting the job done. Rather, I'm looking to elevate my 10x engineer - not the one that's the doing their job well but the one thats mentoring t…

I don't understand why people want to be promoted. I've worked for the same company for nearly 2 decades. I'm basically doing the same job as when I started. I don't want more work or more responsibilities. I'm happy staying in my groove. In that time my pay has more than doubled. Recently my boss informed me that they were giving me a 15% raise. I didn't ask for a raise. I don't have to do any more work. Frankly I've felt for awhile that they are paying me way more than I deserve and I was astonished that they wanted to give me 15% more out of the blue. Maybe I lucked into an unusual situation, but I work for a huge Fortune 150 company and my situation seems fairly typical here.

Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#65

Post by irrational »

ttymck wrote: post #13
sunnyP wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EOS = Entrepreneurial Operating System https://www.eosworldwide.com/what-is-eos L10 = Level 10 Meeting https://www.eosworldwide.com/blog/what-the-heck-is-a-level-1...

Unless I'm missing something, the "WHAT THE HECK IS A LEVEL 10 MEETING?" post doesn't actually answer "what the heck is a level 10 meeting?".

The first rule of Level 10 meeting is you do not talk about Level 10 meeting.

Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#66

Post by peterangular »

shalotelli wrote: post #15
barbecue_sauce wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like managerial consulting claptrap. Don't trust a methodology with an ® next to its name and an accompanying book series.

haha! once you get through the nonsense the concepts are actually really useful

> once you get through the nonsense

I'm not going to trudge through clear marketing/sales copy to get down to a few common-sense nuggets of information. Stuff like this is clearly a sales pitch for books/courses/etc vs. any sort of real-world education around management and entrepreneurship.

Typically when it gets implemented in an org it's just a cargo cult "Simon Says" game that'll get ya fired if you don't drink the koolaid.

Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#67

Post by tcbasche »

seattle_spring wrote: post #21
nathanaldensr wrote: post #3

The answer varies wildly based on the size of the company. At smaller companies, they tend to oversee hiring, technical work, and act as managers, but don't necessarily have budgetary authority. At larger companies, they tend to have more authority and involvement in larger strategic efforts; they tend to be "managers of managers."

Absolutely this. There's a huge difference between a real Director of Engineering at a FANG-size company versus a "Director of Engineering" who is just some kid who decided to call their side-project a startup and give themself a hugely inflated title.

The case in between is the developer who's been with the company the longest (>2 years) and so just gets bubbled up the chain into the CTO role while the dev team consists entirely of graduates/juniors

Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#68

Post by shalotelli »

tibbon wrote: post #49
bojo wrote: post #2

Good insights. Small nitpick, I have no idea what the terms "EOS" and "L10 meetings" mean.

Rocks. I also don't know what rocks are. Well, except things in the dirt.

I used to be told that I should be setting additional goals aside from my day to day work. “What more are you going to contribute this quarter?” That definitely didn’t make sense to me. What does make sense is using the SMART framework to define things I’ve identified as absolutely crutial and most likely the things I’m going to be doing anyway. The benefit is by verbalizing them somewhere I can start digging into if what I’m planning to do cures a symptom or the problem itself. It also allows me and my peers to track it and help keep me motivated and on track. Finally it holds me accountable so that I continue to provide value. The end result is that my contributions and value to the team are public and I’m able to feel a bit less of an imposter.

Re: What does a Director of Engineering do?

#70

Post by ssss11 »

nogabebop23 wrote: post #40
bluGill wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is more amazing is their managers who have figured out how to work the system are not telling people that. Your job should be helping your people get where they want to go so if they can't get there tell them why. I've wasted years working hard and trying to gain influence only to realize that the areas I was getting influence in didn't matter to anyone so I was condemned to get good jobs but no promotion. It ha…

I tell my developers this repeatedly, in the form of "making yourself 10% better is not as good as making everyone you work with 1% better". A few get it and shift towards a "rising tide floats all boats" mentality, the rest do nothing and are perfectly adequate, or agree with me then turn back to solely focusing on self-improvement. The kicker? That 1% universal imporvement is soooo much easier than 10% or even 5% p…

Unfortunately the flipside of this is very common as well - you are a senior team member, improving those around you and should be promoted and/or given a raise. That allows the manager to let you keep doing it for free, and either (a) sit back and not do their job or (b) influence up and take credit for it. Its a two way street and many places/people in power are happy to take advantage of you trying to do good work.
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