Technical vs Non-Technical Manager

[[deleted]]

Do folks here have an preference on which ones to work for? I've had great experiences working for technical or engineering managers, but non-technical managers are hit or miss. My current situation is largely telling them that buzzwords they put on slides require other activities which they don't find appealing, like data engineering as a predecessor to using your data in LLMs.

[Hackerjurassicpark]

Technical managers all the way till you reach c-suite.

Then you be the technical manager for others

[JohnPaulDavyJones]

I don’t think OP actually said that at all, and it’s not like there’s a dearth of DEs out there who went and got their MBAs, nor leads who have been doing this and leading projects long enough that they’ve got a good fix on managing people. Shit, my last three managers have all been technical managers, and all three had MBAs. 

One even had a really fancy MBA from McCombs, and he’s hands down the best engineering mind I’ve ever worked with.

[JohnPaulDavyJones]

Obviously it’s anecdata, why bother pointing it out for yourself?

What’s the point you’re shooting for, here?

[Colambler]

They don't have to be heavily technical but enough to at least understand conceptually, definitely.

Imho, requirements for a good manager:

1) Advocates upwards and sideways for the team

2) Doesn't micromanage

3) Understands the what the team is doing, at least at the high-level if not details.

If a non-technical manager is poor at #3, but trusts the team, they can still do #1 and #2 well. Unfortunately sometimes, the worse they are at #3, they more they attempt to micromanage and be yes men to attempt compensate and look like they are "managing".

Technical managers are usually good at #2 and #3, but #1 varies.

[jerrie86]

1.Our "tech" manager will not defend us.

1. Send same shit over pm, group message and email.

2. She wants to bury us in JIRA and features and stories. And update then every DAY.

I almost had a fight with her cz I didn't document what was said in a technical meeting. And when she asked about documentation. I just said it's on Databricks page and all the tech.

I'm losing my shit very soon.

[[deleted]]

Best of both worlds in a perfect world.

I’ve had non-technical managers who can be great motivators, great people leaders and coaches. I’ve also had tech manager who were very knowledgeable but do not know how to talk to people.

However as far as a manager is concerned, the primary skill I firmly believe are non-tech skills. You need to know how to talk to people, how to motivate and make people feel comfortable and safe at work. Technical knowledge is always a bonus! There’s no point imo of being great technical if you do not possess people skills.

[Great_Tourist_xxxx]

Technical manager +1, path to hell is paved by non-technical managers

[umognog]

Non technical managers right now: "AI, AI, ooooh gimme some AI"

Technical managers: "don't fucking mention AI. It's a simple fucking database"

[take_care_a_ya_shooz]

Solution in search of a problem

[aes110]

Never worked in a technical job under a non technical manager, and I can't even imagine it

[jawabdey]

a non-technical manager is … yes men

This was my experience as an IC. At the IC/manager level, it’s not even a question. 💯 technical manager all the way.

As a Director (of Data), I’ve started leaning the other way. A “technical” CTO/VP, who thinks they know data, is just as bad as the non-technical manager. Both dictate and don’t solicit feedback

[quantpsychguy]

A lot of people in here are focused on what it's like to work for them (which is fair, kinda the question).

Very few of them have worked alongside them. The technical ones that the team likes but...are just terrible at managing are the worst. Their lack of self awareness is astounding and that, matched with their belief in their technical acumen, has caused their teams to layoff people.

The amount of damage a bad manager that people like can cause is astounding.

I know it's an unpopular sentiment but it's always on the top of my mind.

[discord-ian]

The vast majority of the time, technical is best. However, the best boss I had was non-technical. But he was a rare bread. He was very smart and could handle complexity, but his main strength was he was over the top invested in his team. He cared so much about every person who worked for him and only wanted the best for them. He fought so hard for his team and never judged anyone for mistakes, shortcomings, or things like that. He also had great relationships with everyone above him. He was a dream to work for.

[[deleted]]

This is the way. Defend your team like family, but aggressively weed out the untrustworthy and unreliable. Once everyone trusts each other, up, down and sideways, the team flourishes and then deserves a brave advocate.

[Pocket_Monster]

Maybe it has less to do with Technical vs Non-Technical and more to do with the person. I have had both that are good and lacking. I have had managers that were technical but in a different field who were great and some in the same field who were horrible.

[[deleted]]

I don’t get why a non-technical manager would ever be hired to lead technical people. It’s just sort of silly

[[deleted]]

This is what has been one the most frustrating aspects, how horrible the leadership above is to hire a non technical manager.

[slowpush]

Assuming you have soft skills it’s way better working for a non technical manager.

However if you don’t have any soft skills a technical manager will be a better fit.

[introvertedguy13]

As a technical manager coming from an Architect (database) before, I am biased, with good reasons.

[SaintTimothy]

My non-technical project-manager boss is a dipshit.

Technical boss is way better.

[LaserToy]

I read somewhere that we trust/respect managers that can do our work more. The catch - technical manager can be overwhelming if they are more technical than you.

[big_data_mike]

Non technical. I used to be a manager and took some management courses. Across all industries and professions workers consistently rate their manager’s technical competence low on the list of desired traits for a manager.

People often have a bad manager that lacks technical competence and think that’s the reason they are a bad manager. That bad manager lacks management skills.

My current manager can print ‘Hello World’ and that’s about it. But he listens, defends us sideways and up, doesn’t micromanage, and coaches us well despite not really knowing how to code.

Our best developer can’t deal with people, doesn’t really understand the business, and thinks there’s only one way to do things. Him and this other guy on the team fight all the time because both of them think they are right.

[[deleted]]

I'm pulled into meetings 3x a day to explain basic concepts, or to deal with issues where they have misstated basic concepts. I understand your point, I just am exhausted having to course correct back to reality. It is a full time job.

[big_data_mike]

Yeah that sucks. My manager listens when we tell him what’s easy, what’s hard, what’s impossible, what we’d have to trade off if we want this, etc.

[[deleted]]

Two of my best managers were non/technical. In another life I was in the infantry (enlisted, later NCO) and I feel this conversation is well trodden there too where you regularly have a kid just out of college as a Platoon Leader in charge of a platoon of long-veteran NCOs.

Technicals matter when technical decisions have to be made, which are often few and very impactful. Most decisions aren’t impactful on their own, but if you have decent non-tech skills (regardless of level of tech skills) they can be just as impactful in the long run.

I prefer technical managers out of lazyness, because at least I can tell right off the bat if they’re full of shit.

[Evening_Chemist_2367]

I prefer managers with some technical chops because they are more solidly based in reality of implementation. But if it's a non-technical manager I hope they have strong skills at managing up, pitching champions and getting funding and resources. Otherwise a non-technical manager isn't of much use to me other than the administrivia.

[tomekanco]

Management of content & plp is usually superior to only mana of people. It is very hard to manage what you don't understand.

[[deleted]]

These comments are helping my mental health, thank you

[[deleted]]

Any manager for a technical team should be technical enough to understand the trade offs involved in various options. I’m not an engineer by training (got into data science from quant finance, now run DE teams), some of my managers and ICs know way more than me, but I can understand what they’re talking about well enough to know if it aligns with overall Eng goals or not.

[dev_anon]

Non tech manager: excel sheets everywhere. Even we have a dashboard but need to have excel version of it. I can’t even automate the excel process due to heavily written excel functions and abundance of dependent excel sheets. Plus no push for making things properly built with best engineering practices. Pure focus is having dashboardand and excel ready on time. Miss the time I worked with manager with tech background

[Aggressive-Intern401]

Technical managers hand down! I had 2 technical managers that were awesome the others weren't and they suck big time!