5 Engineering Management Misconceptions I Wish I Knew Earlier

I misunderstood the management responsibilities so I was not able to work with my manager effectively

When I started my career, I had a lot of assumptions about management roles. Most of them turned out to be wrong. For example, I assumed management was only about delegation. They just assign tasks and have nothing else to do. (OK, don't judge. I know how wrong that is now 🤦‍♂️)

I figured out some things out overtime as a software engineer, but most didn’t become clear until I became a manager. I wish I'd known these misconceptions earlier. It would've made my work with my manager much more effective.

I hope these clarifications can help those who have the same doubts.

1. “Becoming an Engineering Manager is a promotion.”

Well, that depends.

Based on the engineering ladder, there are two career paths:

• The IC (Individual Contributor) path

• The management path

It looks like the following: