I'm trying to figure out which camp do I belong to, engineering manager vs technical program manager. I've been in engineering for about 8 years and last year, when my manager left the company, I stepped up and inherited a lot of his responsibilities. Fast forward to today, I don't get much time to write code and most of my day is spent in meetings and talking to people in different teams. On one hand, I find mostly talking to product and ux, where I'm helping them make informed decisions with respect to engineering cost for building different features and planning for next quarters. On the other hand, I work with engineers to design how the feature will be implemented and do a lot of code reviews. I also have built a ecosystem where product and engineering are communicating well which has helped us deliver better quality features. Other than this, I do 1:1 with engineers to understand their concerns and their aspirations and try to get the kind of work which they are interested in and as a result of which, the happiness quotient has gone up. Having said this, my title is still that of an engineer and I'm not formally recognized as a manager. I don't have direct reports. Not having a title doesn't bother me, but the compensation and lack of recognition from senior management does. I'm trying to figure out what camp do I more belong to and would like to start looking for opportunities which align with what I do
Sounds like an engineering manager.
Stay as engineer, you won't regret
Heh, any insights?
You sound like an Engineering Manager who is still taking up some lead engineer responsibilities. (Source: I’m an Engineering Manager). You should totally interview for some EM roles if you enjoy your current role.
Thanks. I'm curious to learn what are you classifying as lead engineer responsibilities ?
I read the being involved in feature implementation and doing code reviews as tech lead responsibilities. Especially the code review aspect.
Have you managed poor performance or managed someone out? For me, that's the test of whether someone was operating as a tech lead or a people manager.
Not sure I understand what you meant by manage someone out ? There was someone performing poorly and was at the verge of getting laid off, but I worked with that individual and helped be productive at work now.
Helping them meet the bar is an okay example but these stories rarely show that you're able to make a hard decision. Deciding that someone isn't meeting the bar, communicating it to them, and managing them out of the company is much harder. To me, it better demonstrates that you were a manager long enough and had enough authority to be a manager in another company.
TPM’s typically don’t have any direct reports, Engineering Managers do.
Just want to say thank you for posting this. I am verbatim in the same position with the same amount of YOE. I’m sticking with the EM route.
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Are you excited about going to work every morning?
Do whatever you enjoy most
I enjoy driving a team to ship features which make an impact on the product - Happy to do whatever it takes. Trying to translate that into a title so I can start looking for that job.
If you are happy with your team, why leave? Just ask for the title. It would be easier to be a manager in your current team, and start looking outside after being manager for a while, than going straight to manager somewhere else.