Market is hot, not for senior managers and directors!!
Manager of 3 teams, been managing for the last 5 years, and I have been trying to land a couple of good interviews since March and I can’t find many. Even those that I find, many people are competing for 1 position. On the other side, my wife is a senior SWE and is keep getting messages from everywhere! I myself have hard times hiring for my teams..
So, if you are dreaming about becoming a manager, think twice because that could limit your mobility. If I could operate as E7 level, I would just convert. Better mental health too.!!
Update: thanks for sharing your views. It is not like I don’t have any reach outs from recruiters; I have talked to all good ones, and currently working with Airbnb, snap and some top pre-ipos; however, the bar is very high for managers. For ICs, we are becoming very soft these days due to hiring issues, but it is opposite for managers!
TC: around 900k; but I’m in the middle. Many people make more, and I was hired as ic5. Base,bonus, and regular stock is 760, the rest is appreciation from previous stock awards - 15 YEO.
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Surprised to hear that your background (known in the industry for something critical to Amazon) did not ease things.
Particularly if the interview was team specific (unlike the general rounds that F and G do)
I bet SDM will not do more than as scarecrow
for devs SDM might be nothing more than that..may be excel and outlook at most.. Etc
A Scarecrow costs 900k OMG..
In my startup i will not have any SDM..
all will be automated... Only PM matters not SDM
I hope this role become absolute soon..
By far the stupidest reply. Lol ... Scarecrow? really? are you shitting me? Clearly your inexperience speaking. But don't worry, you are probably not alone. Every developer with < 2-3 YOE thinks he/she is the "irreplaceable" one after writing a couple of lines of code.
EMs / Directors roles are important to bring ICs together. PMs can't do that because barely there are any Technical PMs out there.
Don't worry. Give it a few years. Grow up. You'll learn ;)
As far as your comment on mental health/WLB is concerned, understand that once you break Director or beyond, it actually improves. Now, if you’re a Dir level or above person who can’t let go of micromanagement or if you like to be hands-on and sit and code (yes I have come across many such folks over my career at many companies), then your mental health/WLB will be bad. So you need to consciously learn how to delegate and you focus on leading, conceptualizing and providing direction. Doing that well is as big of an art as it is a science and it isn’t meant for everyone.
As you advance in your career, you will need more soft skills and less hard/tech skills. That proportion keeps changing as you grow. And if any leetcoders want to disagree with this, they can continue spending their lives LCing. Once you’re a senior executive, you definitely need to understand technology and you need to know enough to be dangerous. But you do not need to spend your time getting into micro-details or coding. Lots of ICs can’t make this mindset shift and that’s what keeps them from becoming effective managers and eventually leaders. Remember, being a leader implies that that you need to lead. And what you lead is PEOPLE. Managing people is an art and a skill that needs cultivation. It isn’t random.