Engineer to Manager
2020-09-20 —
Michael Haupt
Switching from engineering to management is an oft-taken step, and many think of it as "being promoted to management". I disagree - making that move means doing a different job. It's more like switching tracks than being promoted along your current career trajectory. YMMV, of course, and there are always cases where you still do a fair share of engineering, but letting go and learning new things are inherently part of this. A colleague brought two texts to my attention that sum up my thinking quite nicely. There's also a podcast episode that I highly recommend; it's about Patrick Lencioni's (excellent, as usual) book "The Motive" that discusses the fundamental question: Why do I want to be in leadership?
Tags: work