Interviews and Resources for Engineering Managers and Leaders
Current role: Development Manager and Head of Front-end Engineering at eBay
Location: Sydney, Australia
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I graduated with a bachelor and master of Computer Science from the University of Wollongong in Australia and worked in hands-on technical roles before becoming a manager.
My journey to management is not unusual but not one that I had anticipated or planned for.
At one of my previous companies, I lowered my bar and made a bad hiring. We were looking for a new team member and spent months interviewing. After some consideration, we decided to extend an offer to a candidate who was “almost there”. I agreed with our panel that we could coach the person in the area they were not very strong. This turned out to be one of my biggest mistakes.
My team and I then had to spend the next 6 months to help the individual but ended up letting them go as they failed the improvement plan.
Today begins a new shorter interview series called “IF I ONLY KNEW”. It is just a single question about when you started your engineering management career what is ONE thing that would have helped the most to know.
Location: Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Current Role: Director, Core Engineering, BAMTECH Media
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I spent the first decade of my career chasing global scale challenges related to databases and distributed systems. In every position, my curiosity kept me deeply engaged with operations and infrastructure. Which lead me to BAMTECH Media – then MLB Advanced Media – as a software engineer helping a company achieve the ever-coveted “DevOps transformation.”
Where are you located?
Napa Valley, California. I recently moved to Napa after decades in Marin, just north of San Francisco. My company has a small office in Las Vegas, but I work primarily out of my home office in Napa and travel to San Francisco, Silicon Valley, etc. as necessary for conferences, meetings, and consulting engagements.
What is your current role?
Founder and CEO of Wanderful, Inc. – we publish interactive storybook Apps for iOS and Android tablets and phones,
Current role: Host, Coaching for Leaders podcast
Location: Orange County, California
What is your background and how did you get into management?
I had the privilege of managing lots of part-time staff in college (poorly, I might add). I discovered early on that while I did not naturally manage well, I had a desire to get better in order to help others grow.
In my first full-time job,
Location: New York City
Current role: Director of Engineering at VTS
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I come from a software engineering background, but I’ve always had a passion for product and business. I’m a serial entrepreneur: I co-founded BillMonk in 2005 (tracks informal debt between friends, like roommates splitting bills; company was sold to Obopay) and the I co-founded Precision Polling in 2010 (self-serve IVR phone surveys;
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Current Role: Director of Engineering at Stitch Fix
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I’m a programmer. I always liked computers and from the time I was a kid, I thought programming was just the coolest thing.
I went to school for comp sci, then got a job at a big defense contractor, because if you graduate with a comp sci degree in the DC area that’s just what you do.
Location: San Francisco and Seattle
Current role: Consultant, making software development hum: interim VP engineering, VPE consultation to senior leaders, team practices assessment, agile and scrum training for leaders and teams, VPE / CTO / CIO / director of engineering coaching.
It was six years ago that I struck out on my own as a consultant to untangle the knots in software development, after 25 years doing pretty much the same as a manager,
Location: San Fransisco Bay Area
Current Role: Sr. Director, Engineering/Acting Head of Engineering
What’s your background and how did you get into management?
I started my career as a Software Engineer back in India and moved to the United States to get my Masters degree in Computer Science and AI/ML. I continued my career as an individual contributor for a few years in a small company which had a very flat structure.
