I’m a problem solver and big picture thinker. I like working out the solution and helping solve the obstacles. The role that has always fit the best is “architect”, but it seems to be going away as a title. No matter, the need for the work remains.
But I’ve done a few of the other roles over the years. Team Lead/manager, Scrum Master, Product Manager (without the title). Here’s my take. A good manager requires a very different skill set to an engineer. The primary skill is to have extremely low neuroticism. The ability to make good decisions and present a calm and rational exterior under prolonged stress. 90% of lower level managers do not possess these attributes, and under stress, damage the team and company. If you want to be a manager, honestly assess how you respond to stress (particularly prolonged). Do you lash out at those around you? Hide or freeze up, unable to make a decision? Blame others and seek to protect yourself or reputation? These things, as boring as they sound, are the real differences between effective managers and everyone else.
> A good manager requires a very different skill set to an engineer. The primary skill is to have extremely low neuroticism. The ability to make good decisions and present a calm and rational exterior under prolonged stress.
This is one of the best summaries I have seen. It is also why it feels so similar to parenting: a good manager needs the ability to be the grown-up. This usually involves unfun things like calling out the elephant in the room, letting people air grievances about your decisions in a group, and staying engaged with people even when they're disengaging and pushing you away.
To me, management always felt like it was something that required all my spoons, and it wanted more, no matter how much I gave. I feel this more a lack of fit than something intrinsic to management, though. FWIW I have moderate neuroticism (according to rando Internet surveys). I suspect I'm not good at simply letting things be good enough, and the broadened responsibilities of management present an emotional scaling issue.
> I suspect I'm not good at simply letting things be good enough
You might be overly hard on yourself here. Everything is a spectrum. My usual failure mode seems to be excessive patience when folks aren’t delivering. It is extremely bad when you let it fester. Lots of stuff doesn’t matter, but when important things aren’t happening, you really need to jump on it fast and insist on the high bar.
I've noticed the most effective managers I've worked with came from calm low-stress countries with similar work cultures - maybe the key to solving crunch and burnout is to create a regulatory environment where a worker's entire livelihood (health, rent, loan payments towards public universities etc.) is not solely dependent on keeping their job?
"But of people aren't mortally afraid, they won't work hard enough!" - American capitalism
I once had a manager (not my direct manager) tell me "maybe some fear is good?" No, it's not. Fear is useful for outrunning predators, but it is a useless emotion for programming computers. Unfortunately that particular phrase had come to that manager from the CEO, so, yeah. That company is a mess of short termism and hasty irrational decision-making and constant thrashing / "why can't we execute on big projects". It's because everyone is so scared that they're just trying to survive, and rule number 1 of surviving is to avoid large unpredictable projects.
I detest this whole line of thought because it's completely at odds with the reality - that people, and especially programmers, are creative and inventive by nature and are the last people who would "do nothing" if not afraid.
Our CEO flew from USA to tell us that if we land that defence contract we'll be set. Of course the USA might ask the company to get rid of all the foreign workers (100% of the developers).
So he came to tell us to not worry, for now the company has money problems but soon™ the company will be doing fine and we'll all be fired!
How emotionally incompetent do you have to be to think this is good news?
In my experience most "big picture thinkers" are actually just saying things with no idea of what they mean, what the consequences are, how to actually do them, and why their idea is bad.
I'm similar to you - jack-of-all-trades big picture problem solver - and have arrived at the same conclusion after managing for a bit over a year: stress resilience is the key skill. If you're an IC you can develop your career by learning new skills, domains etc. If you're a manager, career development becomes increasingly about personal development - maturity, perspective, emotional resilience etc. I suspect this in why seniority and interest in things like mindfulness meditation tend to coincide. HN will hate this, and I say this as a confirmed bachelor myself, but I wonder if parents make better managers because they are less likely to lose perspective and become stressed over things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things? Weirdly I seem to do my best managing when I've become emotionally checked out.
Turns out I'm pretty temperamental, and I privately worry that I'm just constitutionally ill-suited to management. I also struggle with the sometimes disingenuous nature of management - I'm not manipulating you, I'm motivating you! I wish I could just float around the organisation fixing problems, streamlining processes and re-jigging work systems...
> HN will hate this, and I say this as a confirmed bachelor myself, but I wonder if parents make better managers because they are less likely to lose perspective and become stressed over things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things?
Maybe! I've had good managers who were and weren't parents. I'm a parent, but don't enjoy managing.
> Weirdly I seem to do my best managing when I've become emotionally checked out.
A perspective approximating objectivity is exactly what techniques like CBT try to teach you: seeing things as they really are, without your emotions coloring it.
> I wish I could just float around the organisation fixing problems, streamlining processes and re-jigging work systems
That exists. See the solver staff engineer archetype. I suspect it exists more at larger orgs who can support the role effectively, though. But, I think that is me as well. I enjoy being dropped on stalled projects/difficult technical tasks, unblocking it, and moving to the next thing.
But I’ve done a few of the other roles over the years. Team Lead/manager, Scrum Master, Product Manager (without the title). Here’s my take. A good manager requires a very different skill set to an engineer. The primary skill is to have extremely low neuroticism. The ability to make good decisions and present a calm and rational exterior under prolonged stress. 90% of lower level managers do not possess these attributes, and under stress, damage the team and company. If you want to be a manager, honestly assess how you respond to stress (particularly prolonged). Do you lash out at those around you? Hide or freeze up, unable to make a decision? Blame others and seek to protect yourself or reputation? These things, as boring as they sound, are the real differences between effective managers and everyone else.