Level-up Engineering Training Engineering Managers: Matt Greenberg (CTO at Reforge, ex-VPE at Credit Karma)
Training engineering managers doesn't get the attention it deserves. It's extremely valuable to keep and grow your own talent, rather than get all your tech leaders from a competitive workforce market. We interviewed Matt Greenberg, who has gained years of experience training new engineering managers.
In this episode, we're covering:
- How to make sure an engineering manager prospect is ready?
- Challenges of training engineering managers
- Challenges of transitioning to engineering management
- Common mistakes in training engineering managers
- How to build a system for training engineering managers
Excerpt from the interview:
"People tend to think of engineering management as an opportunity to become a leader.
In reality, accomplished engineers are also leaders; they’re involved in everything. You get opportunities to mentor and you have a say in project leadership decisions and technical decisions, whether you're an individual contributor or a people manager.
Being a people manager entails all the administrative aspects of leadership. So, a lot of it comes down to hiring and firing people, performance management, dealing with HR or legal issues, finance, budgets and all these other things.
I think a lot of people want to become software engineering managers for the wrong reason. Also, many people get out of it once they realize what they're doing. You should look at the end goal. Do you want to be a senior leader managing hundreds of people, or do you want to be an accomplished person on a small team?"