Actionable Advice For YOU From My Management Journey - Dev Leader Weekly 34
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TL; DR: Constructive criticism is hard to give — If you’re not getting it, ask for your biggest opportunities to improve. Tech lead or Manager roles require different skill sets and more time working with people, not code. Clarity around timelines and milestones can be very situational — don’t be afraid to ask for more details on due dates.

I wanted to take a different spin on offering career advice to software engineers. I thought it could be an interesting exercise to share several big lessons from my ~12 years of managing software engineers and transform those lessons into actionable advice.

The first 8 years of my professional career after university were managing software engineers, but I was also a contributing software engineer myself. It was difficult to balance (especially at a rapidly growing startup), but the experiences from both IC and Management perspectives were very helpful.

I hope you find value in this! TP;DR at the top of the post.

  • The Bard in GreenA
    4•10 months ago

    In the small business / startup / consulting world, we do it ALL the time…

    IDK how big businesses roll, I stay the hell away from those. I consulted with Meta for six months a few years ago and OMG never again.

    • TehPersEnglish
      1•10 months ago

      IDK how big businesses roll

      From what I’ve seen from two of them, they tend to stay away from programming. I’ve seen managers review code, but very rarely contribute any.