My friend recently became an engineering manager.He’s never managed anyone before, and now he has to lead a team of 8 engineers. Over skype he laughed, “This is crazy! Gooooo.” Here’s a few topics we discussed for his first week on the job as the newest manager in the department. How to track everyone’s status […]
Did the junior engineer speak?
Another fire broke out. Fred[1] was called into a meeting to figure out the issue. The problem required multiple layers of management and Fred could feel the intensity in the room. His manager Vic was there, along with his manager’s manager. Ted was the senior manager of the group. At the head of the table […]
Creating presence – keep that green light on
One of those nights. You have to work late. The issue is critical and you’re the one on the job. You haven’t seen anything like this problem. Your progress investigating the codebase stalls and you need help from your manager and tech lead. They promised they’d be around so you email asking for advice. Nobody […]
Stay healthy
My friend went to the doctor because he had trouble breathing. He thought he had heart trouble or lung cancer.He felt he was dying.The doctor asked him one question, “Do you work in tech?”He said yes. The diagnosis was stress. The doctor recommended he re-evaluate his life decisions. Like quitting his job. From the doctor’s […]
Nudged towards management
My friends and I have similar experiences transitioning from engineering to management. We were all technical leads given the opportunity. I’ve always thought about the reasoning behind that. Management is considered a different line of work from development. Technical mastery doesn’t imply skill in managing a team. When I became an engineering manager, I didn’t […]
Every bug drains one day
Bug pops up. A critical one. How often does this happen to you? I have to stop whatever I’m doing because a customer can’t use the product. I read the bug description on Redmine and think of reasons why the code broke. I eventually reproduce the error and I ask around which developer can fix […]