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

Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 75 posts

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#61

Post by alephnerd »

dacryn wrote: post #34
sheepscreek wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It’s likely not worth it for most folks considering management. There’s no pay incentive. Significantly more people politics (managing up, down, side-ways), you’re in meetings all day AND expected to do other administrative stuff which will naturally fall outside your 9-5. The worst part: once you experience the power trip, it’s also hard to go back. Even after knowing fully well that you’re getting the wrong e…

disagree on the pay incentive, my salary went up A LOT, with additional benefits like company car, more holidays, bigger pension plan contributions and stock options. But yeah, it is a different job. I mainly do it because I value the team where I was at, and believe that I can bring them next level and work on better and cooler projects in the company (instead of them always being delivered by crappy cheap consultan…

> additional benefits like company car, more holidays, bigger pension plan contributions and stock options.

Are you in Europe? I've never heard of management benefits like a corporate car or additional holidays for management (both middle and upper) at both startups and massive publicly listed tech companies in the US.

In fact, benefits seemed largely in line between Management and peer ICs (eg. Tech Lead had similar perks+comp as EngMgr, DirEng had similar perks to Distinguished Eng, etc) with the added downside that Management roles included a massive amount of stress due internal politics surrounding roadmap, budget, and a lack of exit opportunities (a Dir of Eng with a background at Infra companies would be pigeonholed into other Infra companies)

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#62

Post by barelysapient »

As someone who moved from individual contributor to senior manager I'd offer the following humble suggestions:

1) Engage with your manager. Explain your interest in the position you want and ask for their support. If you can't get their support; learn why and either outgrow it or find another manager that will support you. (Not all managers want to develop their team)

2) Ask about and seek to understand the challenges your manager is working against.

3) Internalize those challenges, the broader company goals and create your own personal plan to help achieve those things.

4) Do that plan; gain the support of your team members through influence. Recognize and celebrate their support.

4a) Become comfortable using influence and vision to influence others. Even as a manager, senior manager, or director, you rarely have the pure authority to achieve what you want. Even if you do, the team will chafe under that style. Success is influence; inspiring others to jump in and pull with you.

5) Measure your progress and get feedback. Even unfair or invalid feedback is valuable because its a perception that you can manage against and overcome.

6) Celebrate success. Evangelize and learn from your failures.

7) Ask for the job.

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#63

Post by tomduncalf »

aenis wrote: post #32

Get a new job. Join a large multinational company with known reputation for developing management skills. Management skills can be learned, and not all companies are created equal - some value good management, some only focus on short term results. I did this when I was 4 years into my engineering career. After 20 years I ended up a CTO at a large (~40bn) company. There are good things about it, but I am still the ha…

You also might find if you go to a “big tech” -esque company, the career paths and challenging projects available as an individual contributor might satisfy your desire for growth, without having to go into management. Depends what your motivations are but bigger tech focussed companies will often have parallel IC and manager career paths that are equivalent, so you can become a very senior engineer without transitioning into management.

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#64

Post by JALTU »

ssss11 wrote: post #16

Have a good long think about why you want a management role. It is very different, despite the fact that if you become good at a contributor role you often just get promoted into management (I did). If you like mentoring people, sharing knowledge, delegating tasks (yes, even the tech work you love) and dealing with things blocking the team like politics with other departments then go for it. It can be rewarding but i…

Recently I was asking a former Amazon business manager I know about thoughts on leadership vs. IC roles, and the advice about a leadership role was:

"You have to wake up in the morning excited about solving people problems with 'problem' people..."

Examples were then given about how sometimes you drop hints with people, sometimes you tell them outright, and sometimes despite all that they still don't/won't get it, and you try yet another approach (echoing other's posts here about the same). And so it's stressful unless you like these human issues. i.e., Don't consider leadership unless you derive some degree of "happiness" from "working with people on people."

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#65

Post by osigurdson »

What I find so strange about modern management is it mostly is an error correction function: clearing roadblocks for the team, fighting for recognition, performance management, etc.

I think we should go back to coupling technical leadership, product management, project management and dev manager functions. This is exactly what you would see in a cash strapped startup and it seems to scale to ~50 people. This of course requires very strong leaders who would have full responsibility for the bottom line but I think it could be much more efficient that today’s ensemble of overlapping hierarchies.

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#66

Post by jjav »

intellectronica wrote: post #50
miroljub wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Some people do all of that naturally. Lucky them. Others don't, and it's a journey to adjust. You don't need to be a "natural", but if you aren't you need to learn to behave like one before you can credibly go into a leadership position. Nicely put, but can be also considered as a warning. If it doesn't come "naturally" to you, do you really want a leadership role? You will need to learn, fake and struggle to achie…

I actually think it's absolutely fine to not be a natural and still want it, and that the comparison to a physical talent isn't perfect, because in something as complex as engineering management you can really get very good even if you don't have the natural aptitude, whereas if you are too short to play on the NBA, you won't play on the NBA no matter how hard you practice. You're right though that it's worth thinkin…

> if you are too short to play on the NBA, you won't play on the NBA no matter how hard you practice

Tyrone Bogues played 14 years in the NBA despite being by all pundits way too short to play basketball at any level.

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#67

Post by jjav »

miroljub wrote: post #26
intellectronica wrote: post #20

For reading, I'd recommend everything from Will Larson ( https://lethain.com ). As for attitude and behaviours for making the jump, it's a combination of actively looking for opportunities (that's the easy part), and positioning yourself as someone who is an obvious choice for such a position, which is basically when you consistently have an attitude and reputation of total ownership, supporting others, never complai…

> Some people do all of that naturally. Lucky them. Others don't, and it's a journey to adjust. You don't need to be a "natural", but if you aren't you need to learn to behave like one before you can credibly go into a leadership position. Nicely put, but can be also considered as a warning. If it doesn't come "naturally" to you, do you really want a leadership role? You will need to learn, fake and struggle to achie…

> this applies to every job, not only management. If you are not a natural talent, there's a limit to what you can do, regardless of the effort.

I'd say that's not true for most jobs. For jobs which are an extension of a hobby such as sports and programming, there's truth in that. If you've been living and breathing the hobby since elementary school because it's what you love then yes, you have a big advantage over someone who starts doing it in the university as part of formal education.

But most jobs aren't like that.

For instance nobody is a natural at something as unnatural as cutting open someone's heart and stiching it back together succesfully. And nobody is doing that in elementary or high school. It's an unnatural skill you can learn only by applying yourself in medical school and if you work and study hard at it, become a heart surgeon.

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#68

Post by chad_strategic »

Interesting I'm going thru a similar situation.

I have 11 years of code experience, but I have little to no desire to be a senior developer. The crazy thing is I have 20 years and combat experience in leadership. So being on a software management team would easily be a walk in the park.

I have had a few interviews, with a re-polished resume.

Re: Ask HN: How to move from dev role to management/team lead role?

#69

Post by koliber »

If you have an interest in the managerial career track, talk to you manager. In engineering it’s relatively rare for people who are good developers to be interested in management.

There are two books I highly recommend to anyone considering this move. The Manager’s Path is one. The Making of a Manager is the other.

If you have any concrete questions, I’d be happy to answer them. Contact info is in the profile.

Post reply on HN