Comment by whstl
8 days ago
Eng Manager here. At previous jobs I constantly had this assignment of "stop coding and only do code reviews". This to me is incredibly short-sighted as my code reviews are gonna be shit if I don't code.
Also managing a team of even 10 developers was the easiest job I ever had. Hire well, treat them well, talk with them routinely, solve conflicts, allow them to explore things.
The hard part of the job is of course functioning as a therapist for disorganised power-grabbing product people and shielding my team from their shenanigans. I'm so tired of it.
Every bad engineering manager I had two characteristics: they never have time to code but also never have to talk to me or any other employee.
If I ever get in that position, I want an assistant to do all the paperwork, so I'll have time to code and talk to people.
Paperwork was surprisingly easy so far for me. Lots of interviews and performance reviews but that was always very streamlined.
On the other hand I was always blessed with amazing teams, and still am. So maybe that counts!