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Meta to ask many managers to become individual contributors or leave

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

#181

Post by FlyingSnake »

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?

Staff Engineer¹ is the path for you my friend. If you don't want to manage people, focus on creating maximum impact on your project.

I think the term IC is a misnomer and is detrimental to our field. Afterall the code you write, the designs you make etc are part of the larger puzzle which completes the project. No work you do is in isolation.

https://staffeng.com/

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

#182

Post by joxel »

superjan wrote: post #126
nerdponx wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

If it’s in your interest to lie you should probably get a job that doesn’t make you a shithead.

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

#183

Post by alas44 »

ThalesX wrote: post #178

Potentially inflammatory story, but I think about it occasionally, and this is a good context. I was out having a meal with old college buddies; most of us are developers, but some have become team leaders and managers. I will call it a statistical anomaly, but the worst engineers are now in 'people management' positions. The discussion ended with a guy boasting about how his team has X people, and he's looking to gr…

Out of curiosity what were your own advice vs your manager's (I guess career related)?

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

#185

Post by hello_moto »

r00fus wrote: post #57
disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look man, Apple tanked Facebooks valuation, not the Metaverse. And that's presumably why he wants the Metaverse, so he's not just a sharecropper on someone else's digital platform.

I absolutely don't know why Facebook balked at making their own phone back in the day. Facebook's entire value prop about 10-15 years ago was the fact that you could find anyone on there who you even remotely knew. Imagine (10 years ago) being able to use an FB version of Siri/Alexa to "connect me to that girl Megan from my 5th grade classroom". Sure sounds compelling. Instead FB released a half-assed "dailer app/wid…

> I absolutely don't know why Facebook balked at making their own phone back in the day

Microsoft and its phone story is enough to explain why.

Facebook needs a new platform that they control themselves and Phone is D.o.A because they have to compete with other companies (Apple, Google). Nobody wants to have 2 phones and nobody wants yet-another-Android phone "just for Facebook".

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

#186

Post by benjiweber »

logicalmonster wrote: post #86
theandrewbailey wrote: post #59

What exactly is an "individual contributor"? I'm confused. This term has come out of nowhere in the past 5 years, and it sounds like you're referring to someone who backed a kickstarter campaign. If this is the new term for "employee", I'm out. I can't stand that companies refer to their customers as "consumers".

> If this is the new term for "employee", I'm out. Can you please explain what's that offensive about calling somebody an Individual Contributor? It's a little bit of weird jargon, but it acknowledges 2 important things (they're a person, and they're actually working) which is infinitely more respectful to the people that actually do the work than "Resource" that also gets used. To me, using the word "Resource" to re…

Individual Contributor is problematic in that it implies that contributions are primarily made by individuals rather than team efforts. It also implies that manager roles are not contributing which is also often not the case.

It's quite individualistic. Much like "talent" which is the latest attempt to imply people are resources without using the word resources.

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

#187

Post by tejtm »

zabzonk wrote: post #134
hiddencost wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unders…

what's an IC? a piece of corporate-speak i haven't come across before.

objectification of resource... “commoditizing your complement” for management.

edit to add "in my experiences" I have also seen good evidence via HN that not all management/admin is as dilbert like as I have seen.

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

#188

Post by joxel »

hdjjhhvvhga wrote: post #131
nerdponx wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Is this actually the expectation at the places you work? Can you imagine a manager saying, "I don't agree with these decisions, but you need to do A, B, C." This might be being frank and open with your reports, but at the same time you reduce their motivation. And if top management learns about this, they won't be happy. So yes, there is such unspoken pressure to at least not to distance oneself from the things you…

Yes, it happens all the time. Each time we get a new form we have to fill out to do something or some extra hoop to jump through. If the manager I worked for didn’t act like a normal person that thought that shit was stupid I would absolutely hate working with/for that liar/crazy person.

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

#189

Post by coliveira »

zabzonk wrote: post #156
eftychis wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Individual Contributor. Don't ask me why in heavens that term makes any sense outside one that is myopic or only works with extremely fresh out of school junior engineers and unskilled workers. Edit: P.S. Not sure why a couple of people decided to downvote this opinion. Also to other commenters: it sounds to me less as a be a team player title (like the soldier one suggested) and more like an isolated resource that m…

when did this appear? i literally have never seen it before i read this post, and it makes no sense at all to me.

This is FAANG speak. They created this role for people who are not (directly) involved in management.

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

#190

Post by gnicholas »

bityard wrote: post #110
RjQoLCOSwiIKfpm wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Somebody at Meta worked really hard to make sure that when I'm using Facebook on my phone to read someone's post or comment thread, it punishes me for taking a call or answering a text message by reloading my feed with a set of completely different posts when I re-enter the app, and then making it impossible to find the previous post or thread again. No other app has gone to such extraordinary lengths to make sure yo…

I use FB via browser and have not experienced this behavior there. But I do see it in the LinkedIn app all the time. Even if you click into a posted article, when you exit from the article you won't be able to find the post so you can comment on it!
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