Does anyone feel that software engineering managers are overpaid (paid more for easy work) compared to actual engineers who lead projects. I get that managers track projects, provide resources, set timelines and see who is doing what and how much, but they don't tackle any hard engineering problems or come up with good design or even do code reviews. And most of their work can be done using excel sheets or Jira. Then why are managers paid on par with engineers (especially staff/senior). #engineering #software #swe . I agree that VP and above have direct impact on revenue and deserve higher pay, but what about the low level managers, do they deserve same pay as staff or senior engineers. POLL RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATION: Based on the poll results, this is what I recommend. No engineering manager should be paid more than L4 Technical ICs (using Google level), in addition they can have a variable part in their salary corresponding to $1000 x (number of people under him/her) , and this is per year salary in a high COL area like San Francisco Bay Area
Working with people, understanding and retaining them is way more difficult than working with code. But at an IC level, It’s difficult to understand that
100% this.
Store managers work with people too, they don't get paid as much as engineering managers, but their jobs are similar. I don't see any engineering manager doing core technical stuff
We are here to resolve conflicts, grow your career, hiring , shield the team from upper management and finally losing our tech edge for managing a team shit ass holes.
This. IC would curl up in a corner if they had to deal with half the stuff the manager had to deal with. We gave up on the fun technical stuff to take this.
Store managers work with people too, they resolve conflicts, they don't get paid as much as engineering managers, but their jobs are similar. I don't see any engineering manager doing core technical stuff. I don't understand why engineering managers need to be paid more than a store or restaurant manager
Lol I love how you think being a code monkey is a god tier job compared to.... Anything else.
Haha.. coming from a product person. Btw, I'm not an engineer
Just curious what do know about the work engineering managers do?
Depends on the manager. The effective ones are amazing and the useless ones are awful and don’t deserve their pay.
Engineering managers r usually subject matter experts: they were engineers themselves and after years felt they make better impact using their experience to guide a larger group of engineers to make a more effective impact. That’s the role of a engineering manager. What you just described is a project or program manager . Engineering managers r expected to do architectural reviews be the shadow watching making sure their engineers don’t fall into traps coaching mentoring and providing feedback for them to succeed
I disagree. I don't see any engineering manager doing architectural reviews. Btw, reading a design doc written by an engineer is not architectural review. What they do care about is timelines in most companies. They should be good at tracking things.
Then you haven’t worked with good EMs.
Yeah go ahead and change everyone's comp to "what they deserve" over market, commie boy
Your confusing a people manager with an IC. The jobs are completely different. The fact that you complain that a manager doesn’t do design, etc speaks to your nativity in this area. Managers are there to support the people who report to them. It’s their job to describe reality to the team and to remove impediments to achieving that reality. Managers don’t take credit for a teams work. They take credit for the success of the team but not for the effort put in by the team.
I agree with you. In that case an engineering manager shouldn't be paid more than a store/restaurant manager. Store or restaurant managers do the same things you mentioned above, they take care of the team. My question is do they deserve high pay as a technical lead. Anyone can build a team. It's always supply and demand that decides a commodities value. Think about it
Do you think EMs are leading TLs with out knowing what TLs do? They know when to trust TLs and correct them if needed.
“Deserve” is the wrong word here. The question is which people would you like to hire to do this job? If you want people that were senior staff engs in the past (and you do), you will not get them by offering less pay.
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