Managing ICs vs. Managing Managers
Learn the difference between ICs, EM, and senior EMs and how to manage all of them.
We'll cover the following
- Managers of ICs vs. managers of managers
- Responsibilities of a senior EM
- Have you helped an IC to grow to become an EM?
- How do you help your EMs grow?
- Have you supported an underperforming team? How did you handle that?
- Have you restructured your organization? What was the motivation behind it?
- Challenges faced during a reorg
- Red flags
Managers of ICs vs. managers of managers
Managers of individual contributors are mostly EM1s. They are much closer to the real engineering processes: day-to-day execution, writing code, project management, etc. However, their scope is relatively narrower than managers of managers (usually also referred to as EM2s or as senior EMs). Senior EMs have a much larger scope because they manage multiple teams.
Senior EMs generally have more complex stories around managing low performers, growing people, and conflict resolution. Senior EMs should have experience in managing managers and growing ICs into managers. Senior EMs also have experience in organization building, organization restructuring, and looking at a much bigger picture.
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