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Comment by Aaargh20318 | Hacker News Reader

Aaargh20318

Congratulations, you've been working as a baker for 10 years and have perfected the art of making bread. You have now been promoted to butcher.

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Umm, haven’t you just been promoted to bakery manager?

The point is that the jobs are completely different. They require different skill sets.

It's not a good point though, because one of the important traits of a good engineering manager is that they understand the work of the ICs they are managing (at least to a reasonable depth).

I’ve had many good engineering managers over the decades. None were technical. But they were good because they did have skills in things like running interference for us. In my experience, people skills are far more important than technical skills for good engineering managers.

I’ve also had a handful of good non-technical managers over the decades, and they succeeded by having trust in the right technical people (for whatever reason, sometimes it may have been luck). What I’ve seen more often is non-technical managers place trust in the wrong people, get taken for a ride, and generally fail to pinpoint problems correctly.

You’re right that people skills are more important but they are often necessary but insufficient depending on the specific team and business situation.

An astonishing number of debates are between one group of people saying “Foo needs A” and another saying “Foo needs B” when really... Foo needs a good helping of A and B.

... same as bakery manager? And in both cases it helps understanding underlying work, unless you don't just fill forms, organize meetings and chase/yell at people (then you can be easily cut&pasted elsewhere with same great results)

At every bakery I’ve been to the “manager” is still actually baking as part of their daily duties.

Hmmmm a butcher would be like a business analyst in the software development world maybe?

Both still put they hands on the product, but in completely different perspectives.

Maybe a store manager would be more applicable?

Perhaps a car analogy would clear things up?

I have a friend who got promoted from QA to HR.

They say to get a promotion you need to already be acting at the level of your new role.

How the heck did that one work?

Instead of having been "promoted" to a shepherd?

Dammit. I was hoping for candlestick-maker.

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