What’s concerning of an Eng manager track in FB Goog, Uber, Airbnb?
Am an engineer (550K TC this year), and would like to try Eng management track in two years. 39 years old. Personality wise I’m not that good in managing shits yet but really want to see my potential there. One reason is I’ve seen so many times wrong decisions were made and that failed good projects. I want to do something, to impact these and stop that. Any suggestions, concerns on such a plan?? Thanks!
Level?
You know I have had similar thoughts ... but the problem or concern I have always had is this — I have a nagging suspicion that any advice a manager gives is always selective truth with intentionally mixed lies or prejudice or opinions that are meant to either mislead or take advantage of you. For example - I have never seen anyone give me advice that doesn’t in some way help the other person. It turns into an opportunity for them to influence me and gain some points for their own good when in reality all I really wanted was some genuine advice ... Another example - any honest discussion with some other manager quickly turns into “why don’t you work for me instead!”. Really I need help and you just want to do recruiting? How would one have honest conversations with any manager in times like these.
EM is for managing people — keeping people not pissed off. The real people that have influence on tech decisions are staffs that report to directors.
It sounds like your direct management chain wouldn’t be the best for mentor ship, so start networking and talk to SDMs outside of your org about their experience.