Would taking an Engineering Manager job for a year hurt my chances for FAANG as a SWE?
Hi all, I worked at Cisco for 5 years (Closer to a SRE than SWE - was in Internal Tooling), then went to IBM (and another company we were divested to) for 7 years (2 years SWE, 3 years Services SWE). Most recently, I've created a product from scratch using Spring/React. I've sold it to customers, developed 65% of it myself, and Led/managed a team of 10 engineers this past year to take it from the Alpha State I created it to a 1.0 product. That being said, there is a toxic situation at work with a 2nd line manager who is trying to cover for her/her PMs mistakes and wants me out. My manager, team, distinguished engineer are all backing me. I'm probably safe for another 2 to 3 months, but I'm not for sure, and need to change positions asap just to be safe. I'm being interviewed for Principal/Tech Lead positions. That being said, I'm starting a job search with 0 prep time, so while I'm reviewing DS, algorithms, Systems Design, I don't have the time to prep for real. I originally was planning to prep for 3 months, then apply to various FAANG companies. Now, I just need to move companies, then maybe prep/apply. I've passed several coding interviews, but worried about all the Leetcode related interviews or heavy SD that I don't have the time to prep for. My main questions are, as I need to secure a decent job quickly: 1. Should I target Senior roles instead of Staff/Principal since my total active dev time is lower? (<5 years since I was in tooling/SWE adjacent roles for several years) 2. A company (good company, not my end destination though) really likes my profile and is offering me the opportunity to interview as Engineering Manager or Tech Lead. I'm more confident I can get the EM position since the LC/SD prep won't be needed. While I'm interview for SWE at all other positions, should I go with Engineering Manager at this company just to hedge my bets? Then over the next year I can job search prep and switch back to the technical path (ideally apply to FAANG if this EM switch wouldn't look too bad to them)? Thanks for any help you can provide, #engineering #swe #career TC: LCOL, but way too low: 115
Nope, it wont hurt. Infact having this EM experience will have you better positioned for right level.
Ah, thank you! How do you mean by the way, in terms of better positioning?
Better positioned as in Google will consider you for L5, otherwise they would have considered you for L4. It also helps with leadership interview rounds, but you have to prepare for the coding/ SD rounds anyways.
If your goal is one year, move out asap. Prep on LC, SD and LP for 1year and leave. Many will take you as SWE within or more than 1year. If you like EM continue in that role. Wish you best.
Thanks so much, I appreciate that!
just gtfo the company not worth staying in env that hurts your mental health
Thank you, agreed. I had to work 2 80 hour weeks over Christmas to meet a deliverable my 2nd line committed to (against advice of my manager, and also me saying it wasn't possible 2 months before) as it was basically we'll fire you if you dont' make it. I made it, then they gave me 2 days off and she told me get back to work because of a new January deliverable. My team, manager, and distinguished engineer are all backing me, but nonetheless, i'm not confident on having a job longer than 2 months (nor do I want it at this point, but nonetheless). I would quit now, but unfortunately have some ongoing expenses I don't have an emergency fund to cover (which is my fault but trying to fix this). So instead need to switch actual jobs asap. I'm in talks with 15 companies for an SWE position. However, since I don't have time for LC, I'm wondering if for this 1 company only, I should interview for the Engineering Manager position just to have the job offer in hand. Hopefully one of the other SWE jobs comes through with no issues, but didn't want to be left empty handed due to the situation my second line has put me in (and the financial situation I'm trying to rectify currently)