[mhlakhani]

author here - glad to see this post on HN, and glad you liked it!

re: your last question - I interviewed for both SWE and EM positions, depending on what was available at any given company. At companies that had both roles open, I talked to folks to understand what they expected out of EMs vs engineers, as it varied a lot - and then I picked whatever was more appealing to me. In aggregate I went for 70% SWE / 30% EM roles (roughly)

[veqq]

> what they expected out of EMs vs engineers, as it varied a lot

I'm curious about the rough models which exist.

[theptip]

Some models I've seen (I'm sure there are some other ones):

Pure people manager - HR admin (compensation evaluation etc), professional development, project management, team resourcing, etc. Tend to see this less in very small companies.

TLM (Tech Lead / Manager) - Does all of the above, plus also acts as a tech lead for the project - technical design, mentoring, and possibly some coding. Tend to see this less in very big companies. TLM are typically first-line managers, I've not seen a TLM that manages managers (i.e. Director level).

Rarely, hybrid engineer/manager - Does all the above, plus expected to contribute significantly to coding. Honestly it's a red flag for me to see a team hiring for this archetype, in my opinion it's a pragmatic stopgap you might find yourself with as a small company, until you can hire an engineer or manager to split the role; it's not something you should explicitly hire for.

Sometimes, product lead as "mini-CEO" - manages the team/org and owns product direction. Typically will have a tech lead on the team to own that side of things. This can grow into a Director position, managing the team managers and still owning the product function.

Some archetyes for dedicated Staff engineers (typically the equivalent IC-track level to a team manager): https://staffeng.com/guides/staff-archetypes

[mhlakhani]

thanks for hitting the nail on the head - this is what I saw. I was comfortable with TLM/pure people manager, but not the hybrid (been there, done that - it was rough).

[ketzo]

One of the most basic is “do your managers write code?”

My first company out of college actually banned it as a practice - EMs were not allowed to be active contributors.

I know at some companies, it’s actually a requirement, or at least heavily encouraged, for a manager to spend at least 20% time writing code.

And then some places are a mixed bag.

I can see both arguments! Just good to know that a company has a coherent philosophy on the issue.