alt Hacker NewsI am an EM that manages several senior engineers currently. I find it super common for senior engineers to get promoted mostly on technical merit, we end up thinking the rest "can be coached". Or it's coaching to the next level. Here are some areas I coach them on:
- influencing without authority. Managing up. Leadership.
- getting work prioritized
- providing useful performance feedback (promos etc)
- coaching and giving feedback to early career engineers
- communicating ideas effectively
- developing 1YP+ plans for their areas.
- idk, there are a lot, senior engineers are rarely "complete"
Replies
parthdesai • today at 2:19 PM
I'm sorry, but if a senior engineer needs coaching on getting work prioritized, they are not a senior engineer.
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> Influencing without authority
> Getting work prioritized
> Developing 1YP+ plans for their areas
I was a little surprised by your list. Aren't these normally the responsibilities of a team lead or a manager? If I were hired as a senior engineer, I'd expect to be involved in group decisions about cross-cutting technical concerns (architecture, choosing languages and frameworks, the code review process), but changing my team's priorities would fall well outside the job description.
If somebody has the power to tell me what to prioritise, it feels topsy-turvy for them to ask me to tell them what they should tell me to prioritise. At that point, why have a leader at all?