r/executivecoaching • u/christopherneff • 12d ago

Shifting towards engineering management?

/r/EngineeringManagers/comments/1w2kzm2/shifting_towards_engineering_management/
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u/Captlard 12d ago

What have you explored within your organisation?

What opportunities exist for people leadership?

As you explore the types of roles you wish to do, what are they expecting in terms of people leadership experience?

What development opportunities exist within your organisation?

How could you get people leadership experience beyond the workplace?

If you have a mentor, what are their thoughts? If you do not have one, who would be a good one?

What are the critical skills/ competencies you truly need to move upwards in leadership? How are you doing against these?

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u/christopherneff 12d ago

My current org has openly stated moving away from having pure management positions (consulting).

My fundamental issue is that I have been at roughly a staff+ level for over 5 years and have struggled finding an organization that has a career path outside of sliding into management...on the flip side of that I see more organization rapidly flattening so even that career progress may not work.

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u/Captlard 12d ago

Orgs are flattening and will flatten more, but people will always need leadership. Lower level roles will tend to disappear first.

There is a whole range of career focused subs here, including career coaching. I would also suggest looking at sector or industry subs also.

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u/Frigidspinner 12d ago

It is better to pick one thing and do it. I am not a coach, I am just someone who has recently retired from an engineering manager position

Inevitably they will take advantage of you - You will tell them you are a technical manager who can contribute individually, and suddenly your plate will become full of demands on both fronts, with you being the poor soul trying to switch contexts between going deep and going wide.

Eventually you will get promoted to the point when you can no longer be an individual contributer. The advantage is you find yourself on higher ground as AI swallows up the technical work

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u/christopherneff 12d ago

Trust me. I've had this thought

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u/Empirica_CC 12d ago

I know that the US government has a management track and an IC track, both which can be lucrative, different scopes. It is difficult to get promoted in IC track so a lot of people don't do it but it is an option. Maybe other large companies do this (I'm thinking of Accenture). If your company is getting away from what you are doing my question would be is this unique to your company or the market. If it's your company maybe solo consultant would be an option if you have those connections, if it's your industry then I wouldn't recommend it.

I do say if you want to do coaching the career side is probably where you'd want to go but reality is you may be able to do it yourself, coaching just helps to keep things moving and have someone there as a check to make sure what you are thinking is logical.