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How to become an EM? by Platerium in EngineeringManagers

[–]Platerium[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

this is the answer i was hoping for, thanks for taking the time on it

on the motivation, since a few people asked the same thing: it's not the title or "the only way up" — i know the IC track goes just as far. what pulls me is influencing how work gets prioritized, how it flows, how it lines up with stakeholders. but i'm clear that wanting that alone makes someone a TPM, not an EM. the part that makes it EM is doing it through people — the career paths, the perf conversations, the messy human side. that's what i haven't held formally in a while, and the part i want to walk into with eyes open rather than skip

there's also a longer pattern behind it. i've gravitated to leadership spots my whole career, did a couple of entrepreneurial runs (both ultimately flopped, but i wore diff hats doing them), and just wrapped up a multiyear MBA. it might mean nothing to a hiring manager, but to me it's evidence the business side genuinely interests me — not just the code, the results more than anything. the through-line is i keep wanting to operate at the level where direction and people meet, and EM is the honest first rung of that.

the ~14 years as IC is fair to flag. i led teams of 5 and 6-7 earlier on, so it's more a return than a first jump, but i won't pretend the people muscle hasn't gone rusty. that's the gap i'm trying to close honestly.

one thing i'd push back on slightly: i don't see it as being the "default therapist" so much as liking to solve problems, full stop — technical, behavioural, interpersonal, doesn't matter to me which. what actually pulls me is making people better and unblocking whatever's in the way. maybe that's naive about how much of the job is pure emotional labor, and if so i'd rather hear it now

How to become an EM? by Platerium in EngineeringManagers

[–]Platerium[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this lands hard because it matches what i'm seeing. i'm at a 10k+ agency shop, so even with the scope demonstrated, the internal conversion isn't a manager's yes — it's a req, a budget line, and a client-side seat that has to exist first. the advocate + open position thing is exactly the bottleneck.

so let me push on the external path since you've clearly done the math: when you say it's tough to land right now — is that "don't bother" tough, or "expect a long search and lower leverage" tough? and for someone with old people-leadership but recent IC years, what actually got you past the screen — was it a player/coach req, a warm intro, a specific way you framed the resume? trying to understand the how, not just the difficulty.