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How can I effectively transition from a senior software engineer to an engineering manager?

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Senior Software Engineer at Other5 months ago

Having just started my first stint as a senior software engineer (a terminal level at my company), I'm curious to know what I can do to effectively transition into an EM role. How much planning / direction setting does this require with my manager?

Context:

  • I'm open to moving along the IC ladder into a staff role, but an EM role might expand other skillsets I'm interested in building.
  • I haven't spent much time as a tech lead (~6 months at a startup) and I'm still very new to my current role.
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Discussion

(3 comments)
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    Staff Eng @ Google, Ex-Meta SWE, Ex-Amazon SDM/SDE
    5 months ago

    There’s a few things that you probably want in place first. • Scope that makes sense for a dedicated EM and Eng team (ideally scope has ballooned for an existing EM, so splitting is natural) • Strong trust from the EM or Senior EM you will report to, anyone you’d be asking (please ask, don’t force) to report directly to you, and any stakeholders (PMs, etc) who will depend on your team’s output. • Experience directing other engineer’s work as a project or team lead (ideally not writing code on the project), interacting across teams (with other TLs or EMs) to deliver something in partnership, and presenting results (ideally good and bad) to a director/VP (whatever your new skip level will be) • A willingness to let go of coding and design decisions, and to tell engineers very bad news (poor ratings, project cancelation, etc.)

    From there, if you get as much of this in place as possible, start by taking on some of your manager’s responsibilities. Shadow them in some meetings, then go in their place. Write a strategy document for a program or long-term plan for your team. If you can, own a project from requirements to delivery without coding or designing. Your ownership means you are responsible, you are making sure plans are sane, you are making sure work is allocated properly, etc. You give stakeholders good and bad news as soon as you know it, you course correct a plan and adjust dates proactively, and present alternative approaches to get plans back to green.

    After you have a good feel for what the job will be like, if you still want to do it, see if you can have a trial period without permanent commitment. For a quarter or half, act as if in all ways, with your manager only entering notes (after reviewing with you) and ratings as necessary. If you and your manager agree it’s working, then make it official.

    It is not a one way door. You don’t have to stay EM forever. You can learn a lot of useful things and move back to a senior or staff engineering role. There will be some reasonable suspicion that you can still work as an IC, so keep skills up. You may like to do that anyway once it isn’t part of your job.

    For context I moved from mid-level engineer (L5) at Amazon to baby manager (most line managers are L6), was promoted to L6 as manager, then moved to Meta, then Google, as Staff SWE.

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      Senior Software Engineer [OP]
      Other
      5 months ago

      Thanks for your input! To clarify this:


      > For context I moved from mid-level engineer (L5) at Amazon to baby manager (most line managers are L6), was promoted to L6 as manager, then moved to Meta, then Google, as Staff SWE.

      Once you became an EM Amazon, you moved to Meta as an E6 SWE? Or did you move to Meta as an EM first?

      Also, is this a common strategy folks used to get to Staff quicker?

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      Staff Eng @ Google, Ex-Meta SWE, Ex-Amazon SDM/SDE
      5 months ago

      SDE II -> SDM II -> SDM III at Amazon v L6/Staff SWE at Meta v L6/Staff SWE at Google

      It wasn’t a strategy in my mind. I felt that I was unpromotable at Amazon as an SDE because of… I don’t know, the process and who I am. I wanted to be able to grow, so I did it. I do think having a strong grasp on the interpersonal process of getting things done as a manager does help you frame and make better progress as an IC.

      Honestly, though, a lot of my interviews that got me to Staff were coding and design, leadership existed but I’m not sure having been an SDM/EM actually helped that much. Essentially my technical abilities and leadership abilities seemed to be at the L6 level at Amazon, but that was not getting me there because of me being peculiar in a way that didn’t always fit rubrics.

      I am not sure that I am going to succeed as an IC at this point. I don’t know if I’d go back to management (but that requires trust, not succeeding as a pure IC doesn’t grant that), or maybe TPM if I could do it at a higher level and not have a truly devastating pay cut.

      I’m interviewing on a lark right now. Started as a senior manager loop, and I am not sure if I wasn’t meeting muster as a manager, or if they really thought an engineering role made more sense, but they shifted it to senior staff IC.

      I am not a round or square peg. I am not a geometrically-sound-shaped peg at all. So far fitting in any hole has meant the hole gets reformed by me or I have to shift uncomfortably to try to fit it.