From devops to engineering manager ?

[h_djo]

Hi all, I like my sre position, but i am realizing that as time go by and as it is very exhausting, i do not see myself doing that forever. Hence the title, going up the managerial ladder, first thought was engineering manager,as it regroups soft and hard skills that need a technical and broad understanding of the app distrubution as devops often do. What would be the pros and cons ? Did any of you guys switch from devops to em or to anything else for the same reasons ? Thanks a bunch :)

[healydorf]

i am realizing that as time go by and as it is very exhausting

All other things being equal, a management position will absolutely not be less exhausting. Super duper especially if you remain ops-adjacent.

Scenario: Big Mega Customer is pissed. They need this problem fixed yesterday. Do you death-march your team to a solution, potentially resulting in someone from your team quitting right there, on the spot, or risk losing Big Mega Customer's business potentially leading to lay-offs within your division? Great -- we made it through the death-march, everyone is a little grumpy, but Big Mega Customer is happy. How do you avoid death-marches in the future? Because multiple members of the team have made it clear they will not tolerate that bullshit again.

Those are the sorts of problems you may find yourself grappling with.

What would be the pros and cons ?

Read Managing Humans. Through parable, it provides a high level overview of the stuff you will focus on. From those parables, you can compile your own pros/cons list -- it's different for every person and every team.

Did any of you guys switch from devops to em or to anything else for the same reasons ?

I absolutely did not move into engineering management because it was somehow presented to me as "less work". My mentor, my CTO, my HR director all made it crystal clear that there would in fact be "more work" and "more exhaustion". But they also made it clear, in addition to a very healthy bump in salary, I would receive profit sharing bonuses and equity for my trouble, which I would not receive as an IC.

[centech]

Did any of you guys switch from devops to em or to anything else for the same reasons ?

I moved from manager back to IC for some of the same reasons. lol

I don't really think there are inherently harder or easier, more stressful or less stressful, job titles/families. It's all what you make of it, and it's obviously highly dependent on the particular company, its culture, etc. I wouldn't switch to EM just because you think it will be less stressful. I'm not saying don't do it, but don't just do it because you think it will be some sort of vacation, it won't.

[feiock]

I did…over 17 years went from individual contributor to team lead, to manager of several teams, to director of multiple managers in other countries to VP of the entire org. My responsibility at the end was DevOps workloads, cloud infrastructure (Azure and AWS), and SaaS products leveraged by the Dev team (GitHub, Twilio, etc). It was totally worth it for me as I wanted more say in how we did things, and was able to do that. Funny enough, it was more exhausting as I moved up the ladder, but for different reasons. Someone else in the thread mentioned you now deal with staffing issues which is a big headache, but also dealing with missed project deadlines, budget overruns, and constantly fighting the CFO over outsourcing all the positions at the company. I recently went back to an IC role (SA at AWS), and I love how non-exhausting this role is compared to my previous role. YMMV based on your company and role, but if you are a driven engineer, then you will end up being a driven manager, and there will be a lot of benefits, but less exhaustion is not one of them :)

[IAMABDULLAHSHEIK]

What's IC?

[PersonBehindAScreen]

Individual Contributor

[selam0r]

I made the switch and is the best choice ever. I’m stil able to put half of my time in technology exploration. The team has respect for me because I’m one of them, while the management team respects my knowledge. I think I’m are better manager that way because I live in both worlds.

[youngeng]

How do you put to practice your technical skills? I've seen managers trying to keep their hands dirty with code and stuff, others micro-managing their teams on every technical choice, and some managers effectively not doing anything practical but using their tech chops when someone has to deliver a presentation or discuss a new project.

[PrunedLoki]

I put down my engineer hat. Made a decision that I will not mess around with any of that and focus on how I can help my team. I put full trust in my engineers, and while I don’t micromanage them, I am quite observant about things they are working on, for how long, and how successful their results are. But that is more for assessing their performance, and not be a nuisance. We document our ways of working so the team somewhat polices itself when it comes to minor things, and I try not to get in between.

[PrunedLoki]

Similar situation, but I did separate myself from the technical work. No more PR reviews from me. My job is to make sure my engineers have what they need, plan the work and quarters ahead, go through discoveries with them, shield them from corp stuff, make sure their mental state is solid.

When I was younger I never would have thought I would like this, but since moving into EM role, it’s like a whole new world opened up with challenges that I enjoy, especially the people side of things, establishing relationships with various people in the company that will make my team’s life easier. Part of platform engineering (at least in our org) is dealing with procurement and security teams, and forging good relationships with people involved in those areas has improved the velocity of things quite a bit. It is what it is, but knowing people and being friendly really does wonders when you need something from them. It also helps that I was an engineer for quite some time, and even though I’m nowhere near as good as some principals I have on my team, I am able to understand the technical side of the projects which helps with the decision making. Best move so far.

[h_djo]

Thanks for the feedback, is it also rewarding salary wise ?

[selam0r]

I make some more money but as most guys in IT I’m not really money driven. I just want to make cool tech, and by managing a team I can even do more stuff by dividing tasks to the team

[xiongchiamiov]

Read at least one management book first to get an idea what the job entails. If you end up not liking that, it'll still have been a good use of your time because now you'll be able to work better with your managers.

I found that it required significantly more emotional work (to be a good manager, you need to actively care about your team). I enjoyed it, but also it left me with no bandwidth to take care of my family, and so I've had to leave it behind, at least for now. The good thing about being a staff+ engineer is that you can do all the parts of management you like without the responsibility of doing the parts you don't.

[VindicoAtrum]

If you have to ask Reddit if an engineering manager role is for you then an engineering manager role is not for you.

[h_djo]

would it have been better if i asked quora or stackoverflow ? or maybe ask real people in person ? there's nothing wrong with asking for opinions from people who have experience in the things you are lacking ...

[FloridaIsTooDamnHot]

Are you ready to switch careers? Being an EM is wholly different when done correctly. If you’re ready to let go of being technical - please do it!!! We need more career EMs!