this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Engineering Managers

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Why did you become an engineering manager? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by jeff@programming.dev to c/engineering_managers@programming.dev
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Posting some general questions to get this community going...

I recently moved from a software architect to an engineering manager position after I was asked by my company leadership a few months ago. Mixed feeling about the move. I really like technology and being deep into the code but I am also pretty good at being a manager.

Anyway, why did you make the jump? How has it been?

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[โ€“] dukerutledge@programming.dev 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The more time I spent in software the more problems I saw rooted in org decisions, strategic motions, team dynamics, and engineers lacking sufficient context. I have a mentor mindset and I gravitated towards these problems. I took a chance on management to see if I'd enjoy it. The possibility of force multiplication was intriguing. Turns out I enjoy helping people learn to be more effective. There are downsides, but I have since moved into a director role so I can understand that layer of abstraction and learn how to improve people's day to day and impact from a more systems thinking approach.

[โ€“] jeff@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks. This really resonated with me. At a certain point solving problems in the code became easy and I noticed that projects had breakdowns or failed because of organizational issues and I want fix problems there. And I do really like helping people and making sure everyone is happy and fulfilled.