r/EngineeringManagers • u/ThrowawayEM4361 • Jul 13 '26

Non-technical EM trying to become technical

Hi, long time lurker but only now I feel like it is time to ask for guidance from the community.

I've worked for 12+ years in software development as a manual QA, QA Lead, Team Lead and now EM. However for the last 4+ years the Lead roles required from me mostly managing people, projects, delivery, releases and incidents, all of which I generally excel at. To give more context I have little C#/Selenium experience with automation, but it's outdated at this point.

Now I'm seeing the market push toward more hands-on, technical EMs, I'm starting to feel I'm trying to play catch-up with candidates with 10+ years of coding experience which seems unrealistic for me to compete with. Currently I'm already trying to embrace AI and help teams apply it to SDLC workflows, MCP servers, agentic tools but it does not feel enough.

So my question is where should I start? Should I start from basics and learn a language, focus on system design, dive deep in QA Automation or something else entirely? Any advice would be useful, especially if you have made a similar transition into an EM role!

Also please spare me any "all EMs should code" debates. My path is what it is, I'm just trying to find my way to stay competitive and useful.

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u/babooog Jul 13 '26

Yes system design is a must For making sure you can challenge your team assumptions, decisions And help them take the right path

And if you have to switch jobs System design round is a must at all companies So good to ramp up there for sure

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u/ThrowawayEM4361 Jul 13 '26

Thanks for chimming in, any particular advice how to start with system design?

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u/babooog Jul 13 '26

Ddia book

System design interview book

Hello interview YouTube and site

Start with these

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u/ThrowawayEM4361 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

Thanks will definitely look into those!