learning-notes

h as an IC before (I'd been one more or less for 16 years before starting to transition), it can be a fun new area to learn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTik4nt1knY https://github.com/keyvanakbary/learning-notes (but read the books for real) Will Larson's An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management is a nice more modern book. I would balance it with The Empathy Edge by Maria Ross. A lot of management theory begins with Peter Drucker (and then Andy Grove and then John Doerr etc. - that OKR lifestyle approach - which has various and basically comes down to focusing on input metrics). https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/the-stack-overflow/writ... mentions Smart & Gets Things Done (nice final chapter on different types of team challenges). Peopleware though aging has a lot of interesting examples. Leaders Eat Last was recommended to me by another manager. And in general that is basically the sentiment (i.e., put others first, but use metrics). Like having kids, it's an opportunity to reflect on what you would've wanted differently in all the previous managers you have (and a realization that it's tougher than it looks). While managing engineers is different from leadership, it puts leadership on display perhaps more. Your blast radius is bigger. Most companies won't necessarily encourage it right away for ICs because it has a greater negative effect when it doesn't work. And yeah to reiterate what others have said - it's a skill (i.e., a set of areas to make mistakes in) that takes time to develop/learn. And I'd say a lot of your growth comes down to who your manager will be in the process. If you have a good manager who mentors (in whichever style), you can learn a whole lot and improve your growth areas fairly quickly. Also if you have more of an e2e and slight business focus, it can be interesting. It probably works best for those who are more generalist/breadth-first search types (though if good at communicating and delegating it's not strictly necessary); since there is a lot of "herding" for lack of a better word; and less time to depth-first dive into areas. But yeah it gets better with time (or it should - and if it doesn't like I say it should be a two-way door). At first you might be like - what are all these 1:1s and why am I running around so much? And then with time, you'll start looking forward to all your 1:1s. And learning from others re: strategy (in general you'll participate with one level up meetings more; so if you're L6 at a company, you'll start seeing more what L7s see and be asked for input on, if you're responsible for a team). And starting to exhibit the best parts that you've learned before. More links for the curious https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3NLetsLYu4 https://randsinrepose.com/archives/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc The experiences I've heard about it (as mentioned here and which I'd reiterate) are that you can't think of your performance in days, but rather in weeks. You "work" through people. Though automation can be your programming outlet. And most importantly it's best to be honest with people. The people on your team everywhere will know when you're trying to cover things up, etc. Senior leaders will know when you're trying to cover things up. So just be honest and open and keep everyone's best interests in mind. And unlike my default learn to be "crisp" :)