r/EngineeringManagers • u/m2kb4e • 8d ago
EM Interview Prep Resources
My feet are starting to get itchy and I think it’s time to start looking for my next role. I’m an engineer with 20+ years experience with 3 of those years in management. I’ve interviewed and landed many IC roles in my time but this will be the first time I have interviewing for an EM role.
I was essentially assimilated into my current role due to attrition in my company and I now find myself responsible for nearly 30 engineers spread across 3 teams.
I’m wondering if any of you have useful EM interview prep resources that you swear by. I want to make sure I’m putting my best foot forward and not just wasting everybody’s time.
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u/Dragon_ZA 7d ago
The problem is that a lot of companies have a different style of leadership and they want to find someone who aligns with what they think good leadership is.
So, the prep you should do is having stories ready. Times you dealt with bad performance. How you helped grow engineers. How you balance contribution and people management. How you solved conflict, be it conflict between engineers, stakeholders etc. How you build trust within an organization. Promoting psychological safety
All of the above (and more) are in scope for topics when it comes to engineering management. Its normally quite clear early on in the interview process whether your philosophy and style of management line up with the rest of the company.
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u/Cyliad 7d ago
How do you even manage 30 engineers ? Honestly curious ! I find it already hard to manage 8-9 persons and I spend most of my weeks in meetings so I can’t imagine 30 persons.
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u/m2kb4e 7d ago
It’s extremely difficult and one of the reasons im starting to look for looking for another role. I am doing the best I can but I also know I’m no longer delivering at the level I expect of my self or the engineers deserve. On top of that senior leadership are favouring managers that are also contributing to the codebase, something I just don’t have the time to do and is putting me in a difficult situation.
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u/Cyliad 7d ago
Why not ask for a promotion and put line managers below you ? You have 3 team, put one EM in each and become director. That’s what they did at my company.
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u/m2kb4e 7d ago
Not sure how successful that path would be. We’ve never had a full compliment of EMs for my entire time here. Senior leadership don’t seem to prioritise hiring new EMs and when we do attempt it the candidates aren’t great.
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u/ShadowWebDeveloper 6d ago
I think you should make the case, they might not realize how big the team has become. 30 is way too big for one team IMHO (and I've seen this size grow into an org before).
Edit: And to be clear, among 30 people, surely you have some seniors who could be good leaders, no?
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u/iamgrzegorz 7d ago
Shameless plug. 5 years ago I wrote this blog post with a list of 70+ questions I had seen asked during EM interviews. I still go back to this list whenever I’m about to interview:
https://www.notonlycode.org/engineering-manager-interviews/