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Is spending 12K per month normal or too much
New to SWE management. Been a tech lead for 5+ years. YOE 12 A popular book on people management in SWE (titled “Managing the Unmanageable”) says managers should not code (it’s an anti-pattern). Why is this? A manager with strong coding skills may want to code up the foundation/framework for a large application or help a struggling team. TC 400k #engineering #software #swe #google #facebook #meta #uber #salesforce #amazon #lyft #microsoft #linkedin
You can do code reviews.
It should be fine if the manager was an engineer on the team for several years before and knows the codebase well. In any other situation, they should have more important things to do.
You can have an Eng do the same code and get promoted for it. Code written by a manager is wasted growth potential for another eng
Value proposition. Is coding the best use of your time? If you are a true manager and not just a tech lead, almost always there are more impactful things to do for you than writing some lines of code. Source: From experience, manage dozens of engineers
Sometimes yes, to protect your reports time. If you can handle a small but important bug fix, copy update, clean up some warnings or a failing test, and this keeps your reports focused on their bigger projects, I think that’s worth it. As a manager we’re context-switching all the time, so there’s very little additional cost to pick up a ticket like that. But it’s very costly for most ICs to do that same work if they’re in the middle of a project.
“As a manager we’re context-switching all the time, so there’s very little additional cost to pick up a ticket like that” Maybe you don’t work on real complex systems. There is no fkg way any manger can fix a bug just like that. Where do you work ???
I think the point is: Only do enough to teach. Good to give people a “fence” to work within. Let them do whatever they want within it. A technically capable manager “micromanage” by essentially writing everything themselves. That’s why it’s an anti pattern
It’s more about the manager being ultimately responsible for a project. If engineers are not meeting timelines or engineers leave the company (which is out of a manager’s control), the manager is ultimately responsible for the success of a project and may need to step in and write code to get things done.
You have to be careful. People under you won’t review your code under the same scrutiny
True. But you can specifically ask them to scrutinize your code to the max.
You think you ask and other smart people will just dutifully obey?
Your job is to make other Engineers successful by getting out of the way You are a Manager because you know how long X will take and allocate resources accordingly If you get into coding, that is time spent less on carving out career paths, bringing new projects, Marketing ur team to outside the orgs etc
True. Enabling engineers to be successful is just one part of the story. The other part is ensuring your team delivers quality work on time. If a project is in jeopardy of failing (because engineers are not doing their job or because of attrition, etc.) a manager has to step in an do what it takes to get the project back on track. This may include getting your hands dirty with hands-on coding.
Most companies simply dont have EM/Staff separation and EM is not EM but tech lead. EM is a lot more of a FAANG concept
And I believe that’s the right way in pure “tech” places
I think EM is more about ownership and ultimately responsible for a project(s). This is big in most companies. There needs to be someone who is ultimately responsible and can be blamed.
Fix bugs. Seriously, be in touch with what your reports are doing. Make your boss fix some bugs too. This will make reports respect you and it will allow you to scope and manage better.
I don't think so, my previous manager was best I even had. Update some configs here and there. Good code reviews. Instead of fixing the bug he'd rather document it in the ticket making it easier for anyone to fix it. You know he definitely knows how to fix it, just allowing someone else to take the shine
Especially when you have some juniors on the team
Anything is fine if they are paid less than staff engineers who do bit of both. Strange field we are in !