Engineering Managers Day-To-Day

In this lesson, we break down what an engineering manager’s day-to-day really looks like—why their calendars are packed with meetings, how they handle technical planning, and why the emotional side of the role is often underestimated.

• We highlight that EM calendars are dominated by 1:1s, alignment discussions, and cross-team negotiations, much of which shields us from logistical or resourcing debates.
• We explain that managers need enough technical depth to estimate project scope, evaluate dependencies, and participate meaningfully in planning without writing code themselves.
• We note that much of the real work happens outside meetings—reviewing docs, giving feedback, writing updates, and communicating progress upward to directors and VPs.
• We emphasize that people management is a huge portion of the job: coordinating collaboration, following up for junior engineers, resolving interpersonal issues, and handling performance challenges.
• We discuss the emotional burden managers carry handling compensation, performance ratings, personal struggles, and burnout and how this makes them part-time therapists as well as leaders.