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What is expected of a engineering manager?

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Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#91

Post by neilv »

quercusa wrote: post #74
the_arun wrote: post #52

Few things I learnt so far: 1. Managers need to be human & kind. 2. Shielding their team from crap (as someone mentioned already) 3. Don't pitch one team member vs another - this is toxic. Instead nurture their strength. Our competitors are outside the team, not inside 4. Cheer lead/Sponsor for the team outside. Genuinely back your team. 5. Always expect your team members are smarter than you - give them that trust.…

> 4. Cheer lead/Sponsor for the team outside. Genuinely back your team. You don't have to (and shouldn't) tell them you are doing this - word will get back to them.

I'd like to suggest that, if one helps others naturally, the "word will get back to them" part isn't a consideration.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#92

Post by brianwawok »

_y5hn wrote: post #81
andi999 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is different in Software engineering than in Hardware, but if you have a team developing hardware and they encounter a problem they cannot solve they have to turn to their manager. So the manager also gets technical crap/difficulties to solve. The 5% he cannot solve goes one level higher, so basically the higher you get, the more distille/purerd crap you get.

Software is more like turd production, than bridge building!

You don’t really make turds so much as glue together library turds.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#94

Post by ggm »

Managing expectations up and down is hard.

Confining your knowledge of how you would do it, in a what/how functional separation is hard.

Time estimation is hard.

Under promise and over deliver is well known and you, the manager will get squeezed on it both sides.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#96

Post by aynsof »

peterwoerner wrote: post #43
Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

The #1 job of a manager (in all fields) is to keep his people working. It doesn't matter if it is engineering, manufacturing or the local burger joint. A managers #1 job is to keep his people working.

But you need to take a very long position on this.

Someone's beloved cat died? That's your problem, because it's affecting the way they work. You need to help them through it.

Someone's working well? That's great, but you can't rest on your laurels. You need to help them grow into a more senior position so they don't get bored or disillusioned.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#97

Post by rbetts »

musicale wrote: post #93

Based on ostensibly well-known and successful companies I know, I would say: not much, and very little of positive value. Technical leads and senior engineers, however, seem to add a lot of positive value.

But at some point, an engineering manager identified and hired those leads and helped to facilitate a path for growth for those sr. engineers?

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#98

Post by khazhoux »

I guess I'm just cynical, but every time I see a post on "How To Be A Great Manager", I only see "Look At Me, I'm A Great Manager!".

Why the cynicism? Because in my career across many companies and many teams, I can count the good managers on one hand, but have seen people "playing manager" everywhere -- and these are the ones who like to espouse theory.

* Frequent one-on-ones! (yeah but everyone on your team is demoralized and trying to switch out)

* Shield the engineers from crap! (but you still let your team struggle to take care of everything while you're busy "aligning" with the other managers)

* Help the engineers grow! (are you actually giving them more responsibilities in a way they can deliver and actually get promoted this year, or just dispensing cheap advice every week?)

* Resolve conflicts! (do you personally take it upon yourself to settle issues with your peer managers, or do you co-miserate with your directs about how political everything is)

Really, there's dozens and dozens of things a good manager will need to do, and it's far from a solved problem. Drawing up a list of desiderata is not the hard part. The difficulty is how to actually enact them, how to actually impact the team, how to actually drive the project forward. You tell me your secret and I'm all ears.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#99

Post by wccrawford »

ryandrake wrote: post #58
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. This is especially relevant, these days, when HR departments are basically taking an actively adversarial role towards employees. I used to get crap from HR, if I chose to resolve personnel issues without involving them. The problem was, they had only two speeds: Do Nothing, or KILL ALL THE BABIES. Nothing in between; despite their constant harping about how they were "on our side." Their job was to keep…

Maybe I'm just extremely lucky, but I think in 20 years of working at multiple companies (as an IC), I've never really even had contact with HR besides my first and last days. I don't think I could even name a single HR person I've ever met. They tend to be there to hand me the benefits literature, then at the end I give my badge back to them, and that's it. What on earth is happening in companies where HR is part of…

The last time I had dealings with HR, it was because I had reported that my boss did something illegal, and I told the head of the company.

They tell me to deal with HR, and HR tells me that I should have talked to my boss first.

In short, the heads of the company didn't want to hear about the illegal stuff, and HR was their shield for it.

My boss actually told me, "I could get fired for what you said." It wasn't what he did that was the problem in his mind, but that I told people about it.

I didn't last much longer at the company. They didn't fire me, but they also stopped giving me raises. When I asked for one, I was asked if I could "wait a year". I found a new job for a 40% raise 6 months later.

Re: What is expected of a engineering manager?

#100

Post by madeofpalk »

peterwoerner wrote: post #43
Timberwolf wrote: post #14

I think the article misses what I think is a vitally important part of the job: being a crap shield. A lot of the work of an EM is wading into the slurry pit with a shovel so your team are free to get the job done: bashing your head against InfoSec teams stuck in the '80s so the CI/CD toolchain can deploy to production, negotiating freedom with a CTO who wants to specify everything to the level of individual data str…

The #1 job of a manager (in all fields) is to keep his people working. It doesn't matter if it is engineering, manufacturing or the local burger joint. A managers #1 job is to keep his people working.

To keep their people working. Women can be managers as well.

Edit: I understand other languages might have gendered nouns for words like Manager, and when learning English it can be difficult to break these habits.

In English, we have gender neutral pronouns to use when were talking about "generic people" where the gender isnt known. Managers are not just male, so when a sentence is gendered like that I struggle to parse it because I think I've missed a the reason why this hypothetical manager is male.

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