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Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

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Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#31
I don't know exactly what this company is looking for and how big a team you would be managing so it's hard to speak for them, however, an Engineering Manager is usually a pretty high level position and you should be expected to have a lot of experience under your belt in management, leadership and software engineering. The fact that you're never been in a management role even as a lead engineer (how is that possible?) means you're potentially unqualified for this position. I know that's hard to hear but I want you to come into this with the right expectations.

Having said that (and if you're still going to go for it), I'll try to give you some pointers.

1. Being a good engineering manager means having a good framework for getting things done. You probably have something like this already but as a manager, you have to be disciplined about keeping your team happy and productive, as well as knowing what everyone is working on at all times.

2. Be able to demonstrate how you think strategically and not just tactically (e.g. tactical: we're going to use MySQL because we have a hard schema, strategic: we're training engineers on the AWS tech stack because we have (or want) to move our organization in that direction for financial reasons).

3. Value "output over activity". Andy Grove's High Output Management is a godsend that explains this concept very well, but for the interview, demonstrate that you know the difference between people flapping their wings vs moving the needle forward.

4. Be able to speak about the difference between leadership vs management. Leadership is getting people to follow you while management is having people work for you. Management also means understanding the schedule, building a roadmap, and working with other groups to influence or lead important initiatives.

5. Helping ICs manage performance, motivate and incentivize good work, providing mentoring and guidance including career advice, rooting out low performers and managing them out. This is the hard, potentially unpleasant part of the job, and you'll need to demonstrate an understanding and willingness to do this (no one else will do this for you, this is the manager's job). Critical; since you don't seem to have experience here, you better brush up on this stuff most.

6. You job is also to understand current technology trends and be up to speed on the code, the process on the team, and the ways that things could be improved. Understand iterative process improvement and talk about how you've done this in the past.

There's lots more but this should hopefully cover the big important stuff.

All the best to you!

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#32
Three things I try to find out in a manager / director level interview :

1. What is the process for reviewing, committing, merging and deploying code ? How are technical designs vetted before starting development on large projects ?

2. What is the process for hiring engineers and reviewing performance ?

3. What is the process for describing, prioritizing, and ultimately building and releasing new features ?

Understanding those 3 things as they exist at the company (and your approach to each) will tell you a lot about the organization, how to proceed, and will tell the company a lot about what you are bringing to the table.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#33

Two things that I always advise new managers when I promote them or hire them. First, (for new managers) managing people is a completely different skill set from engineering, expect to suck at it when you start and let go of your hard won pride that you developed becoming an awesome software engineer. One of the "failure" modes of new managers is that they are so uncomfortable doing these new things, and so comfortab…

You're 100% correct. I had to learn these things the hard way.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author seems to be pretty clear about having been a team lead but never having directly managed anyone. Huge difference. Having a similar background myself, I can say this is probably one of the biggest hurdles if you're looking to get into management. You can talk at length about mentorship and leading through influence and judgment and all the stuff that goes with being a "technical lead" but it doesn't make mu…

I've heard lots of names for managers, but never had someone called a "team lead" and not had direct reports.

Well now you have. Nice to meet you!

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#36

I did the same journey as you are about to embark on a year ago. It did not end well. The job itself was titled "scrum master", but the description read more like a team lead/product manager role. I've done a little bit of both and was interested in exploring this career path and I jumped on. The recruiting was not what I was used to. All in all I had 8 interviews over a course of 6 weeks. They focused heavily of my…

What was wrong with the product / team?

You didn't know what the product was when you started?

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#37

Read The Manager's Path: A Guide for Tech Leaders Navigating Growth and Change by Camille Fournier

OP - do yourself a favor and read this short book (or just the first few chapters applicable to you). It's the best, most practical book on software engineering management that I've seen, and I'm only half-way through it.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#38

Two things that I always advise new managers when I promote them or hire them. First, (for new managers) managing people is a completely different skill set from engineering, expect to suck at it when you start and let go of your hard won pride that you developed becoming an awesome software engineer. One of the "failure" modes of new managers is that they are so uncomfortable doing these new things, and so comfortab…

> Your success is entirely in your team's hands.

This isn't true. A lot of a manager's job is doing the little things that are necessary to get done. This may involve scrum master, project management, and even product management. Find the gaps and fill them!

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author seems to be pretty clear about having been a team lead but never having directly managed anyone. Huge difference. Having a similar background myself, I can say this is probably one of the biggest hurdles if you're looking to get into management. You can talk at length about mentorship and leading through influence and judgment and all the stuff that goes with being a "technical lead" but it doesn't make mu…

I've heard lots of names for managers, but never had someone called a "team lead" and not had direct reports.

It's reasonably common for there to be a "first among equals" type situation where the person with a title like "technical lead" or "team lead" has technical decision-making authority within the team, but isn't formally a manager of any of the team members in the HR sense.

Re: Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview?

#40
post #36

I did the same journey as you are about to embark on a year ago. It did not end well. The job itself was titled "scrum master", but the description read more like a team lead/product manager role. I've done a little bit of both and was interested in exploring this career path and I jumped on. The recruiting was not what I was used to. All in all I had 8 interviews over a course of 6 weeks. They focused heavily of my…

What was wrong with the product / team? You didn't know what the product was when you started?

Without going into details, the product was started 10 years ago by one of the programmers whom I suspect wanted to be a game developer, so the product is filled with gamedev patterns and due to a tech choice it's not possible to migrate to a modern architecture without rewriting the whole thing.
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