Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 674 posts

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#121

Post by lucasgonze »

I was an engineer, then a manager, and now I'm transitioning back to about 80% IC work. There were a couple big obstacles.

- Getting your skills back means getting hired to do engineering in the absence of sharp skills. I had to fake-it-to-make-it for a little while.

- Moving from manager to IC is a risky story on your resume, where you want to show continuous growth. You can't take just any IC role. In some way it has to show a positive career trajectory.

Now that I'm over the hump things are great. I love engineering and am glad to do it all day.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#122

Post by coffeefirst »

firstfewshells wrote: post #43

Management is just a way to coast. I don't understand why we need to "manage" grown up adults. What we need are team leads who code and architect. Then give them the autonomy to run teams.

Those are the same things.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#123

Post by hallway_monitor »

throwaway4837 wrote: post #111

Zuck has it right. All the worst managers/directors/VPs in engineering I've seen are people who don't contribute anything to the codebase. They actively discourage managers who want to write code from writing code. They instead encourage them to focus fully on process and sprint management. Lots of backwards ideologies in tech perpetuated by B-players who got a little too comfortable with "people management". I would…

Anyone without intimate knowledge of the product they are working on is useless IMO. I was in the code daily when leading a team and don't respect any development team leader who isn't.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#124

Post by coolbreezetft22 »

throwaway4837 wrote: post #111

Zuck has it right. All the worst managers/directors/VPs in engineering I've seen are people who don't contribute anything to the codebase. They actively discourage managers who want to write code from writing code. They instead encourage them to focus fully on process and sprint management. Lots of backwards ideologies in tech perpetuated by B-players who got a little too comfortable with "people management". I would…

Aren't Product Managers & TPMs considered ICs? They don't have direct reports but aren't writing code either. I imagine this will be a more common option for these Engineering Managers who are managing other managers

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#125

Post by hiddencost »

throwaway4837 wrote: post #111

Zuck has it right. All the worst managers/directors/VPs in engineering I've seen are people who don't contribute anything to the codebase. They actively discourage managers who want to write code from writing code. They instead encourage them to focus fully on process and sprint management. Lots of backwards ideologies in tech perpetuated by B-players who got a little too comfortable with "people management". I would…

My experience is much the opposite:

the managers who want to write a lot of code usually are so focused on their contributions they fail their other responsibilities.

The ones who are trying to set product direction are usually harmful, too.

The managers I've had the best experience with are the ones who focus on helping their ICs navigate the larger organization, dealing with human issues, and helping the ICs understand organizational priorities, and evaluate risks.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#126

Post by superjan »

nerdponx wrote: post #94
flashgordon wrote: post #67

I had cautiously gotten into management because I wanted to learn the skills of delegatin and really building through others and growing/coaching others. I thoroughly enjoyed this. But over time what I had realized was the role had been changing (not sure if it was just for pandering) towards being a mouth piece for leadership and hr - having to relay decisions I didn't believe in (perf seasons, promo rationales, lay…

> As if they were on purely my own Is this actually the expectation at the places you work?

In general, if you want your reports to accept company decisions, it is in your interest as a manager to align your stated opinions with company policy. Openly disagreeing, or just trying to take a neutral position will only reduce faith in the company and sow unrest for which you will be held accountable.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#127

Post by omeze »

artifaxx wrote: post #114
ianlevesque wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay I'll feed the troll. There are only a few places where if you implemented, for example, an effort to reduce "body dysmorphic disorder", it could instantly improve the lives of 3 billion users worldwide. Meta is one of those places.

I don't see their comment as trolling. Reducing the negative impact Meta already has is a more accurate description. Given their track record so far, you'd be a tiny minority to even get to work on that instead of ad/user engagement optimization for example.

For every teen with poor body image issues there are likely 5 people served by Facebook in some way that they deeply appreciate. I talk to family members in Algeria who I'd never be able to reliably keep in touch with otherwise, and friends in Europe love FB marketplace. Yes, a service for 2-3 billion people has drawbacks. It's disingenuous to say that it doesn't improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people, though.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#128

Post by ratorx »

stcroixx wrote: post #49
bennysonething wrote: post #3

I want my career path as a developer to never be anything but individual contributor. I like teaching newer Devs but I don't want to manage them. Maybe I'm being naive?

I've been in a role like this for many years in a small company. I doubt it would really work in a rigid FAANG environment with formalities like levels and performance reviews and all that - it would get too political and competitive. Other managers will always try to change your mind on this. When layoffs come around, they usually are more likely to get laid off and their tech skills are now stale and they have to r…

This is a pretty well-defined role in FAANG. Usually the promotion criteria to become more senior as an IC will require demonstrating mentorship.

Separately, there is also the Tech Lead track, where you don’t get reports, but rather final say over an increasingly larger area of influence and drive cross-team/org projects.

Re: Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

#130

Post by jdlyga »

Every company should set a 6 month trial period on engineers turned managers. I only know one or two engineers who ended up enjoying it. It's far, far more likely to dip your toes into it with enthusiasm and realize you hate it. It's not about not trying hard enough, about social skills, or it being "a totally new job with a new skill set and you're not used to it yet". It's about your personality type.

Ask yourself:

Do you like being in charge of people, or do you like being in charge of the codebase?

Do you like solving your problems by asking people to do specific tasks for you, or would you rather solve a problem yourself?

Would you rather take a breadth first depth first approach to you work?

Are you good at planning, logistics, and deadlines, or are you more comfortable with going with the flow?

Post reply on HN