Don't become an engineering manager • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#11

Post by skeeter2020 » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

simonw wrote: post #7

halper wrote: post #4

I cannot be alone in feeling that titles (within "tech" in particular) are almost completely arbitrary? What constitutes a "senior", "lead", "principal" and "staff" X, respectively, has so much overlap that it really depends on the organisation. I myself have been called all of those things, but have honestly not been able to tell the difference: in some cases, I have had much more responsibility as a "senior backend…

One thing that's worth remembering is that companies - especially in Silicon Valley - use titles as a way to compare salary levels with each other. If you are an engineering manager looking to make the case for raises for your team members one of the tools you have available is usually an anonymized survey of similar compensation levels from other companies. You can say things like "this person is a high performer an…

>> use titles as a way to compare salary levels with each other.

small companies typically go the other way, using titles to make up for concrete remuneration. This is why everyone in a startup is a VP and ICs climb the ladder to senior in a couple of years.

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#12

Post by DJBunnies » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:09 PM UTC

Totally agree, completely different skillset. Every engineer I've seen "promoted" as such becomes miserable, and frankly is not very good at their new role, effectively making it a double loss.

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#13

Post by makapuf » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:15 PM UTC

UK-Al05 wrote: post #2

The document is comparing salaries of staff engineers, and EM's. In my experience staff engineer positions are even rarer then EM positions.

sure, as long as we're talking about 110 to 170k$ non-managing, technical roles in EU, I'd like to see a full eclipse soon (both exist but I think the latter could be easier to find)

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#14

Post by ecshafer » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:16 PM UTC

There is a major gap in this analysis by not controlling for industry or companies. Engineering Manager is a very generic title, so this is going to get Start Ups, Big Tech, Little Tech, Enterprise, Contract Shops, etc. Staff Engineer is very uncommon in Enterprise or Contract shops, there you typically see SWE 1/2/3 -> Tech Lead -> Architect. Most Tech companies I think have more of a SWE 1/2/3 -> Staff Engineer -> Principal.

The other part is that Engineering Manager is a terminal position, I've known a few people who were manager for 20 years without ever going to Director / Exec whatever, its just a competitive jump and mathematically most will never go up. This is ALSO true for Senior -> Staff and Principle though. But Engineering Manager positions often have more of an upside with bonuses / incentives than Engineers get.

Finally it is ultimately a career change, and that should be the primary factor to consider.

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#15

Post by jollyllama » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:18 PM UTC

> My friend was afraid that as a manager, he'd have less time to experiment and adapt. Especailly with a bigger team (he was offered to manage 6), you don’t have much time to play around.

You guys get time to play around? As lead/staff?

> You can be a great EM for years and find yourself stuck.

Better start now then, right?

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#16

Post by jghn » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:20 PM UTC

skeeter2020 wrote: post #11

simonw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that's worth remembering is that companies - especially in Silicon Valley - use titles as a way to compare salary levels with each other. If you are an engineering manager looking to make the case for raises for your team members one of the tools you have available is usually an anonymized survey of similar compensation levels from other companies. You can say things like "this person is a high performer an…

>> use titles as a way to compare salary levels with each other. small companies typically go the other way, using titles to make up for concrete remuneration. This is why everyone in a startup is a VP and ICs climb the ladder to senior in a couple of years.

This brings back memories of the candidate who demanded coming in as a high level engineer. Their argument was they were currently a CTO. Of their 2 person company. While they were still in college. And they were only borderline hireable for our entry level role.

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#17

Post by general_reveal » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:20 PM UTC

Might be worth talking about peer respect. Do soldiers respect the West Point grad that hasn’t or doesn’t do soldering? Not really right?

Some won’t ever take that position out of sheer self respect.

Many EMs are not ready to roll their sleeves up and do the full work, they are only ever riled up enough to roll their sleeves up and begin hiring like a maniac or going batshit crazy with micro management. You see, we all saw you too at work. Just know that. This is the LinkedIn comment you won’t see to your stupid fucking work achievement post - fuck you. Morning rant over.

But for my real EMs, much respect :)

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#18

Post by nixon_why69 » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:26 PM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #9

halper wrote: post #4

I cannot be alone in feeling that titles (within "tech" in particular) are almost completely arbitrary? What constitutes a "senior", "lead", "principal" and "staff" X, respectively, has so much overlap that it really depends on the organisation. I myself have been called all of those things, but have honestly not been able to tell the difference: in some cases, I have had much more responsibility as a "senior backend…

Within a given company, I think these roles are well-defined. In a big tech company, a principal engineer will influence decisions at a much higher level then a senior whose isn't visible outside his team. And an engineering manager support, evaluate, represent the team, and help with goal alignements.

Maximally cynical take, tongue somewhat in cheek:

If we measure principal engineers by "cross team force multiplier impact and its visibility to management" (second part being key), what kind of behaviors do we incentivize? Are there, possibly, bunches of mid-level and senior engineers dealing with extra hassles to demonstrate this impact?

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#19

Post by zkmon » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:26 PM UTC

Not quite. In most companies managers are seen as 'inner circle' people while technologists are just workers. Managers get exposed to a lot more comms, giving more visibility and get ability to act like a smart person purely because they have more emails and get into more calls than the others. They not only get more power, but also get more info.

Re: Don't become an engineering manager

#20

Post by piltdownman » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 3:30 PM UTC

general_reveal wrote: post #17

Might be worth talking about peer respect. Do soldiers respect the West Point grad that hasn’t or doesn’t do soldering? Not really right? Some won’t ever take that position out of sheer self respect. Many EMs are not ready to roll their sleeves up and do the full work, they are only ever riled up enough to roll their sleeves up and begin hiring like a maniac or going batshit crazy with micro management. You see, we a…

// Do soldiers respect the West Point grad that hasn’t or doesn’t do soldering?

Yes, just like an Office Hierarchy there's an expectation that they respect the Rank - based on the caveat that the Officer/Manager doesn't confuse Rank with Authority.

Also, to clarify some previous assertions, VP title is often needed to empower a given member of staff to sign contracts on behalf of the company in certain jurisdictions or configurations.