Building Great Software Engineering Teams: Recruiting, Hiring, and Managing Your Team from Startup to Success

CHAPTER 13

Tricks of the Trade for Engineering Managers

Managers in all disciplines face a wide variety of unpredictable and complex challenges. Compared to a role as an individual contributor, each day tends to be, to borrow a computing term, more interrupt-driven—you need to be ready for anything. This chapter contains an assortment of tips, tricks, and advice for many of the situations likely to be encountered by technical managers and leaders.

What Does a Vice President of Engineering Do All Day?

Earlier in my career, I used to wonder what a VP of engineering actually does. I think it’s a fair question for people who have never held that kind of role. I would see VPs and other senior staff sitting in a lot of meetings, talking on the phone, ...