Why didn’t I stay as an engineer? What was the force multiplier I found as an engineer to blast myself towards staff+? Let’s find out!
The first inkling to becoming a manager happened over a vacation.
I was working on the Core Android team at Yelp as a Software Engineer. I was good at what I did, I had peoples respect, I was very helpful, I got stuff done, etc etc. Nothing too exciting.
As far as a career though I was still kind of coasting. I had no real career aspirations, other than keep doing well? I didn’t know much about much, including why I was meeting with my manager every week. Does he just want to make sure I’m doing my work? Can’t he just look at my Jira for that?
So I go on this 2 week vacation to Scotland and Ireland. Beauty everywhere. Castle after castle after castle. Everwhere we went we’d find a nice spot to read. I read quite a few books in those 2 weeks.
One of them was “High Output Management” by Andy Grove. I can’t guarantee the same epiphany for you or anyone else, but it blew my mind.
I finally understand why I had been meeting with a manager every week for my entire dang career and I had been wasting it.
When I returned to work, I created a new Google Doc and shared it with my manager. I added a heading that was the date of our next 1:1, and during the week I wrote all my thoughts and questions in that doc. Our next 1:1 was so packed we got to maybe 5% of the things I wanted to talk about.
I created a new heading with the date of our next 1:1. I rolled over things I wanted to talk about, added things that came up during our 1:1 we didn’t have time to talk about, and during the week continued to add more topics.
I’d be working on build timings, and wonder why we couldn’t just get Android engineers better hardware, so I’d add “Can we get Android engineers better hardware? What’s that process like at Yelp? How do I build a case? Who would I need to talk to to get approval?”
What I learned reading that book, was that my managers job was to make me more effective. To ensure I was happy and wanted to keep working here. That my ambitions were met. His role was to remove blockers in my path.
Until I read High Output Management, I had no idea why I even had a manager. Nobody explained it to me, so I made my own assumptions and never even thought to challenge them and as a result I wasted so much potential in my first five years.
Don’t be me.
Use your manager. Build a relationship with them. Let them help you. HELP THEM help you. Give them data. Let them know what is getting in your way, dragging you down, and keeping you from doing your best. It doesn’t mean rely on them for things you can do yourself, you need to take ownership and responsibility, but there are so many things a manager can do to help you, especially early in your career.
They are a force multiplier for your career, if you let them. If you do the work.
As a result of creating that doc and putting in the effort to be thoughtful of what I wanted to talk about each week, I became the tech lead of the team. I got to run standups for the team. I got to do quarterly and annual planning. I was the one who put the roadmap together. I got to represent Yelp at Hack the North. I got to go on recruiting trips. I created opportunities to give talks, and write for Yelps external engineering blog.
These were things I wanted to do, and I made them happen by talking about them.
My manager was thrilled with this change, and would talk about how going on vacation was the biggest productivity boost I ever had (and I can’t disagree with that!). He asked me how he can get the other engineers to also have similar docs! ;p
So much and more sprouted from this idea that my career was in my hands, and my manager was here to support me. Some of those gains were because I was rubber ducking to my manager about my career, and some of them were from our now insightful conversations.
So About Becoming an EM?
Right!
So that book helped me realize the role of an engineering manger (EM) is to help support and bolster engineers, and I loved that idea. It was the first time I considered that as a career.
It wouldn’t be another 5 years until I actually made the leap.
I won’t run through the full 5 years, but the gist of the delay was because I became a full time remote engineer and moved to Canada. I wanted to be fully remote more than I wanted to be a manager.
When the COVID-19 Pandemic changed the landscape, and I realized that remote was here to stay, I let my manager know immediately that my intentions were to become an EM.
While I might have been able to pull it off before that — I can be very persuasive (and persistent!) — it would make it really hard to change companies. I didn’t want to become a remote EM at Yelp only to be unable to change companies because everyone else required EMs to work in office.
The pandemic changed that, and so I started to pursue the path.
Now, I wasn’t fully locked in when I told my manager. I had a 1.5 year plan to interview other EMs to understand the role and everything that came with it, I was going to read books, listen to podcasts, and take courses (I learned these don’t exist or are insanely rare).
A month — maybe two — later, there is an opening on the Design Systems team. Sort of a dream team for me. 10 engineers, ambitious projects, they help other internal engineers and designers be more efficient and productive. They had awesome products already. The engineers themselves were very respected and sought after.
But it didn’t fit the plan! It was a hard choice.
I interviewed the manager who was leaving, and she only made the decision harder. She spoke so highly of the team and made it even more exciting of an opportunity for me. I expressed my fears+concerns and she said she think I’d do great. Thanks for nothing! ;)
How I made the decision was this:
I pictured two scenarios, and asked which one would make me a better manager after 4-5 years.
The first was I say no thank you to the Design Systems team, I stay the course and continue with my interviews, reading books, listening to podcasts, and failing to find any courses because why would anyone make such a niche course helping other EMs be successful (hint ME, I’m doing this, but don’t tell anyone), and in 8-16~ months I become an EM (for another team).
The second option, I say yes and do the job. I read books when I can, I learn from my mistakes, and I embrace the terror.
The answer was so clearly the second one to me, so I said yes without any more deliberation. 4-5 years of doing the job is going to decimate 16~ months of study and then 3~ years of on the job.
In Closing
I will write another article some day on my experience becoming an EM and what that experience was like, but this was what lead to me becoming an EM, from the initial spark to my decision making criteria.
I don’t think becoming an engineering manager is for everyone, but after 3.5 years it was the correct role for me. I love this job, and I get to learn so much more than when I was an engineer. I am very lucky to have the team I have, and I feel I am in a position to help so many more people grow than when I was an individual contributor.
If you made it all the way through, thank you! I hope it was interesting or helpful to you in some way. Feel free to message me or comment, I’d love to chat! :) Also if that kind of course sounds interesting, let me know! I’ll add you to the list :)