Ask HN: How to prepare for an Engineering Manager interview? • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by malyk » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 9:20 PM UTC

ec109685 wrote: post #38

ChuckMcM wrote: post #20

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!

You are correct, but I think the original comment is more geared to the idea that you probably shouldn't revert back to what you are comfortable with and jump in and start coding when there are bugs, or tight deadlin s, etc.

I do think you should do some coding, even if you can only do it 10% of the time. It'll give you credibility with the team and you'll get to better understand what everyone deals with on a daily basis.

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

#42

Post by malyk » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 9:24 PM UTC

One thing that I've found difficult to do at times is to give your team space. Space to explore, try new things, do some things differently than you would do, make mistakes, etc.

You should always feel like you can overrule or supplement a decision, but you don't have to be the one to come up with every solution.

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

#43

Post by spacefeast » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 9:26 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #39

johnbellone wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Never thought about it as "first among equals", this is true.

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

#44

Post by johnbellone » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:02 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #39

johnbellone wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep, "technical lead" is that in my head, but perhaps that's because a "team lead" is line manager everywhere I have been.

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

#45

Post by bsvalley » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:05 PM UTC

Read this article. It'll show you the gaps between a Lead Engineer and a Manager. Focus on these gaps for your interview. Some people here seem to mix the difference between the two roles, you don't "manage" anyone as a tech lead, you do manage technical decisions though:

https://carouth.com/blog/2015/02/15/i-am-a-technical-lead/

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

#46

Post by johnbellone » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:06 PM UTC

ec109685 wrote: post #38

ChuckMcM wrote: post #20

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!

I agree that a lot of a manager's job may be tasks that are necessary to get things done, but I still don't see how your success isn't tied to your direct's/team's success? I understand that as a manager you may be given a stacked deck team wise, but even then I would imagine that you were put into that situation to be a change agent. If you weren't, well, that's someone sandbagging you and a different problem!

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

#47

Post by herval » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:09 PM UTC

fastbeef wrote: post #40

Danihan wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Would be funny to see, say, an enterprise software filled with gamedev patterns. Would you care to elaborate on any of it? What kind of patterns were specifically glaring/out of place?

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

#48

Post by johnbellone » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:09 PM UTC

malyk wrote: post #41

ec109685 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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!

You are correct, but I think the original comment is more geared to the idea that you probably shouldn't revert back to what you are comfortable with and jump in and start coding when there are bugs, or tight deadlin s, etc. I do think you should do some coding, even if you can only do it 10% of the time. It'll give you credibility with the team and you'll get to better understand what everyone deals with on a daily…

You should be writing code, experimenting, attending technical reviews, but never put yourself in the critical path. Your job is no longer to deliver code, it is to lead the team or product.

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

#49

Post by johnbellone » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:13 PM UTC

rootforce wrote: post #11

There are already some great suggestions on here, but I love this topic so here are mine. For the interview, come up with an answer to this: Tell me about a time you leveraged your experience and knowledge to multiply the efforts of your team. A lot of what you will be doing is spending your time helping your team do good work on the right things, so any experience you have where you have done that as a senior or lea…

In the startup world finding a mentor may be hard, and if you are in that situation you may want to look outside for a mentor. But if you are at a large organization, there is often a support network or mentor program already available. Take advantage of it!

If you can, ask your current manager to write a SWOT and use it to pair you up within a mentor to make strengthen your weaknesses. Try to find a mentor outside of your reporting chain.

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

#50

Post by kafkaesq » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 10:52 PM UTC

ec109685 wrote: post #38

ChuckMcM wrote: post #20

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!

He just means "on balance, your success lies in your team's hands".

Yes, there's a lot of things a manager can do to screw the project up. But ultimately, it's the team that's actually doing the work. And ultimately, your job is not to "do the heavy lifting", or make all the key decisions, or figure everything out. They already know what to do. Your job is to enable them to succeed.