Exploring seven common leadership scenarios.
If you’re looking for a very traditional breakdown of engineering manager archetypes – tech lead manager, team manager, director, and so forth – you can’t do better than Will Larson’s post, and I won’t try. I enthusiastically endorse everything he says, especially about Tech Lead Management roles being mostly a trap.
This post aims to capture a different set of archetypes: the common inflection points in a senior engineering manager’s career trajectory, what contributes to these, and some recommended next steps.
I’m of the opinion that career ‘planning’ is mostly overrated. There are just so many variables that go into what makes you feel happy, challenged, and content over the course of your life, and trying to predict how you’ll feel more than two or three years down the line is a fool’s game.
