Currently a VP technology(at another European bank not Deutsche), managing couple of people directly and few others via dotted line. Have been on off mgmt roles throughout. Am hands on (100+ Leetcode). Ideally would like to go for an EM role at FLAANG etc. However When I last spoke to FANG they mentioned that due to the less number of reports, they might take in as an IC first. They were ready to interview for EM roles but not keen. - anybody else faced this situation ; how did you handle it ? - is it advisable to ask recruiter to anyway arrange for EM interviews ? I hope it does not put me at a disadvantage right away - is it advisable to join as an IC and "hope" to get to EM roles ? It would be kind of a longer route to my desired role YOE:14 TC: 210
At FB IC and MGMT tracks are completely parallel, same TC and benefits, just different responsabilities. So it’s not really a demotion in the traditional sense, making it to management is usually not a promo but a lateral move. Obviously you may feel it as a demotion if what you want to do is management, but that’s another story. This is somewhat common and the reason it’s made this way is to make sure that the person can handle themselves as an ic from a technical point of view and also to asses interaction with the team and raw leadership skills, i.e: are you a leader even when I don’t give you a title to force it? This is obviously a risk and I’ve seen people where the decission was made not to transition to management after all. But it’s completely up to you and your skills. If what they need is a manager, they will want to transition unless there’s a very good reason not to do so. Hiring external managers is much harder than ICs after all.
Are you really saying managers have the same TCs as ICs? I understand the lateral move from a tech lead to a manager but who would want to work twice as much for the exact same amount of money?
There’s an equivalent level between IC and EM at each level. Expectations will be increasing in scope in a similar way at each level but with very different responsibilities. Performance is measured in objectives rather than time worked.
Dude it’s harder to get higher level IC positions vs EM positions. IC to EM requires no ladder transfer interviews, the opposite does. Often IC gets paid more than EM. How is that a demotion?
Agree removed demotion
F6h8 has it right. The worst mistake a company can make is hiring an inexperienced manager. An inexperienced manager can demoralize an entire team and ultimately fail at an organization. OP - from your initial post, you indicate that you can solve 100 leet codes. Since that’s one of your strongest selling points, it makes sense that a company would want to slot you in as an individual contributor. You also indicate that the largest team you’ve directly managed is a team of two. Having a couple of direct reports is common for a lead engineer. It looks to me like you need more experience managing larger teams. If it’s your goal to get into a FAANG as a manager, I would suggest getting additional management experience outside the FAANG.
I used to manage a 9 member team ~7 years back, but I got your points. Difficult at Google/FB. Are there any like companies which might be more lenient in making this change ?
Bumping. How about Dropbox / Uber / Lyft / LinkedIn / Amazon etc
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Not a comment to your exact situation but I interviewed for EM at Google Zürich a few days ago. So there must be still demand. Maybe your profile doesn’t match well enough or they had other experiences with management from banks... What I’ve seen in the past is that they do EM interviews, candidate didn’t meet all criteria but performed well enough and scheduled a follow up for an IC position. Maybe something to discuss with your recruiter?