Structure and emotion The higher up the org chart you go, the more that you find that the day-to-day concerns that you are dealing with are more abstract, uncertain and just plain messy. If you’re new to the management game it can be pretty stressful. Whereas days spent as an individual contributor allowed constant focus around (mostly) well-defined pieces of work, your days spent as a manager open you up to issues and interactions that are […]
Intrinsic motivation Previously, we looked at the two main career tracks that engineers can work towards. These were the individual contributor (IC) track and the management track. ICs mainly stay hands-on with technical work and spend their career becoming deeper experts, whilst managers relinquish their technical reins and apply themselves to the leadership of people, teams, and departments. It’s very difficult to do both of these responsibilities fully and with a high level of competence: […]