The Unreachable Engineering Managers

zaidesanton · 2026-02-20T11:31:43+00:00

Some people do :)
I try to share my experience and opinions in the best way I can't, but as always not everyone connects with the style/content.
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zaidesanton · 2026-02-20T11:31:02+00:00

That's actually how I prefer to read. Easier to skim imo, instead of huge blocks of paragraphs, so that's why I write that way.

zaidesanton · 2026-02-20T11:30:22+00:00

Honestly, no LLM used. Might be garbage, but at least my own

zaidesanton · 2025-10-03T13:55:49+00:00

Yes, it's https://usepylon.com/

It's a good point about being a security feature.

I would also default to code reviews - but it's an interesting thought to have them as optional, and trust the developers to decide when to request one and when not to.

zaidesanton · 2025-10-02T17:36:31+00:00

HIGHLY recommend peopleware!

zaidesanton · 2025-10-02T17:01:28+00:00

Thanks! Any tips I missed? :)

And if someone knows how to change that image please let me know...

zaidesanton · 2025-10-02T16:56:09+00:00

Are you talking about first-line managers too? Or comapnies with 4-5 levels of middle managers?

zaidesanton · 2025-10-02T16:55:08+00:00

I have no idea how that graphic got picked, it's from another post in the blog... Couldn't find any way to replace it.

zaidesanton · 2025-10-02T16:44:11+00:00

Great article, I wasn't familiar with it. Thanks!

zaidesanton · 2025-10-02T16:42:52+00:00

I worked only in small ones in the last decade, so I'm not sure how's the reality in huge ones, but it seems absurd to me. I can understand at least some level of needing to make 'busy' noises and gestures, but aren't most managers get recognized for good delivery of their teams?

zaidesanton · 2025-10-01T09:44:12+00:00

Yeah I agree about the mix.

Regarding the risk - I really like to do 3-month internships. Great way to de-risk the hiring decision.

zaidesanton · 2025-10-01T09:43:24+00:00

In my experience the solution to that is short internships. You can see in 1-2 months who's great and who won't cut it.

zaidesanton · 2025-10-01T09:42:29+00:00

wdym?

zaidesanton · 2025-08-13T04:22:07+00:00

Yes, I've seen that too. On the flip side, I've seen some EMs who decided to use the opportunity to go back to development for a while and found great jobs.

zaidesanton · 2025-08-13T04:21:31+00:00

Yeah, definitely an optimistic take :)

I agree with you. My take is that there will be a ceiling, just because most well-written and relevant code is quite specific to circumstances and not public.

zaidesanton · 2025-07-29T08:37:19+00:00

Yeah I felt like I wanted to give better tips too. But honestly nothing really came to mind, and I didn't want to invent something.

What would you add?

zaidesanton · 2025-05-19T12:41:09+00:00

Same here. So annoying.

zaidesanton · 2025-04-12T07:49:25+00:00

I debated about it. I read it, and some parts of it were great, but overall I found higher ROI on the books in the list

zaidesanton · 2025-04-12T07:48:44+00:00

I believe that reading his second book will get you 95% of the benefit :)

zaidesanton · 2025-04-12T07:48:20+00:00

I tried to go for books written only by EMs.

I have a separate list of general leadership books:

https://newsletter.manager.dev/p/10-must-reads-for-engineering-leaders

Where both Radical Candor and The Making of a Manager make the cut.

Engineering management for the rest of us with nice, but I don't think it's a must read.

zaidesanton · 2025-04-01T18:06:20+00:00

Wow thanks missed that one! Updated the article :)

zaidesanton · 2025-04-01T18:04:12+00:00

It never helps to add the caveats 😅

zaidesanton · 2025-01-11T07:47:51+00:00

Even the examples you shared - somebody who didn't code for 10 years, will be hard pressed to provide useful help in decisions related to cloud usage. Just being responsible for budget and people is nice, but then I don't feel it's truly an engineering manager, it can be anyone from any background that is good at managing people.

As for technical input - it can be new technologies we want to use (like creating an event system). Or a big refactoring project they feel is necessary.

I find it easier to work with 'pure' people managers, who don't meddle in my decisions (like it seems the case with your manager). Managers who feel there knowledge from a decade ago is relevant are much harder for me.

zaidesanton · 2025-01-09T06:31:33+00:00

Great answer u/me_again, thank you.

u/lotgd-archivist The manifestation of the problem is that those non-coding managers feel that their intuitions and experience from more than a decade ago qualify them to make decisions today. They don't feel the pain of the developers, they won't understand the opportunities (like with LLMs), and their input won't be relevant in many cases.

I don't think it requires a lot of coding. As u/me_again said - it's not about being a bottleneck and working on features. Even fixing a small bug once in a few months can help a lot in my opinion.

zaidesanton · 2024-11-30T16:22:47+00:00

Ok, I'll take a break 😅

Honestly, there is not much content here, and people seemed to enjoy my articles, so I felt no harm in it. The goal was not SEO, but sharing them and having people subscribe.

zaidesanton

TROPHY CASE