Posting some general questions to get this community going…
I recently moved from a software architect to an engineering manager position after I was asked by my company leadership a few months ago. Mixed feeling about the move. I really like technology and being deep into the code but I am also pretty good at being a manager.
Anyway, why did you make the jump? How has it been?
The more time I spent in software the more problems I saw rooted in org decisions, strategic motions, team dynamics, and engineers lacking sufficient context. I have a mentor mindset and I gravitated towards these problems. I took a chance on management to see if I’d enjoy it. The possibility of force multiplication was intriguing. Turns out I enjoy helping people learn to be more effective. There are downsides, but I have since moved into a director role so I can understand that layer of abstraction and learn how to improve people’s day to day and impact from a more systems thinking approach.
Thanks. This really resonated with me. At a certain point solving problems in the code became easy and I noticed that projects had breakdowns or failed because of organizational issues and I want fix problems there. And I do really like helping people and making sure everyone is happy and fulfilled.