The Great Transition

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Like I described in?Consistency is Key, I find consistency very important, so I want to start by apologizing for the unscheduled break I took with this newsletter! Being consistent with writing is important to me, but a break is needed from time to time. For this newsletter, that break has now been established as September!?

The break was also well-timed this year, as it's allowed me to make a significant professional transition: I am returning to the individual contributor (IC) role after being a manager for the past ~18 months, my transition in the Great Reshuffle! The next obvious question is, why? That's what I'll cover in this month's edition.

Some may think that management wasn't working for me, that I didn't enjoy the role. But, perhaps unexpectedly, that's not the case! On the contrary, I've greatly appreciated being a manager, and I think I was doing a decent job at it too. That said, as a manager, I've been able to continue learning and observing other managers and engineers, and after a lot of thought and reflection, I've been able to determine that the engineer role is more fit for me at the moment.?

Being an IC and being a manager are very different, but there is also a lot of overlap, especially in leadership. Managers are, by default, asked to lead as they manage their reports, ensuring every one of them is on their optimal career path and learning the things they want to be learning. Engineers are not as explicitly in a leadership position, but those who do find ways to lead end up delivering immense impact to those around them. Impact is at the core of my decision, as I firmly believe I can have a more significant impact as an engineer than I could as a manager.?

Without the explicit mandate that comes with management, leading from an engineering role is less clear-cut, but this is a challenge I find very exciting. Not only is it less clear cut, but there are also ingrained perceptions at LinkedIn about how to get into senior engineering positions to which I look forward to providing a counterexample.?

For me, reaching the next engineering level will require delivering impact across a large swath of engineers, across an entire organization. I have many ideas on achieving this, the most important of which will include working closer to our infrastructure. A strong bridge between product and infrastructure teams is essential to having everyone succeed, and acting as a leader to form that bridge from the product side of things is one of my top goals.?

As a side note, another perception I have heard is that infrastructure work is harder than product work and that product engineering is easier. I find that interesting because if that were the case, why is there a perception that one must join an infrastructure team to continue leveling up the technical ladder? Working within an infrastructure team may be potentially more technically challenging, but working in a product team involves much more significant communication challenges -- it's all about tradeoffs in the end, just like most things!?

Product engineers have the challenging role of acting as middlemen between members using the product, multiple disconnected infrastructure teams who don't always see the same things product engineers see, and are often not well connected to other infrastructure teams. Ensuring infrastructure teams are working on the right stuff is critical, and it takes strong product engineering leaders to provide the right feedback and direction for that to happen.?

Another angle to discuss in this transition for me is the example it sets around trying out management. As I've discussed this transition with colleagues, I've repeatedly heard that they wished more people could try out management, especially for engineers who are curious to see how it works. So I'm excited to provide an example of how this transition in both directions can work!

When first entering the management role, I heard that my engineering skills (as in, IC skills) would erode, and I'd be setting myself back along the IC technical ladder. While I see the truth that rust inevitably forms around out-of-use skills, management and engineering (at least at LinkedIn) are so intertwined that I've learned so much over the past year and a half that will be highly applicable to my new role. I would not have been able to arrive at my decision without being a manager, with the visibility that's given me into many areas of how LinkedIn operates that I was otherwise not exposed to. There's an argument to be made that this visibility shouldn't require going into management, and I agree -- I hope to help uncover what I've learned as a manager to my peers so that they may be better informed and potentially reach the same conclusions I've attained in less time ??

"Excited about not having so many meetings?" is something I've heard in some form or another from folks I've discussed my transition with, and my answer has been seemingly unexpected: I bet I'll have a similar meeting load as an IC that I did as a manager, and that's ok! There will be a greater need for me to find chunks of focus time to execute various tasks, but there is immense value in discussing with others. It's through these meetings that my focus time tasks get set up for maximal impact.?

"But you won't have to be doing 1:1s with your reports all the time?"

True, but that frees me up to have 1:1s with mentees, of which I hope to have much more than the number of reports I had as a manager. Mentorship as a manager is loaded with a potentially awkward sense that showing a lack of understanding or knowledge could impact your compensation or performance ratings. I've found it far more difficult to effectively mentor my reports than it was to mentor my peers as an IC effectively, and I'm excited to get to focus exclusively on those around me improving, without the baggage of compensation, performance, and the like hanging over conversations. Furthermore, as a manager, I owe each employee time every week; it's a hard requirement. As an IC mentor, though, weekly meetings aren't always required! Some relationships require it, but others can function effectively with biweekly, monthly, and sometimes even quarterly conversations. This frequency variation will allow me to mentor many more people than I've been able to support as a manager.

The last thing to mention, which is particularly relevant in today's market, is the additional flexibility offered by an IC role. While both managers and ICs can go remote at LinkedIn, it's admittedly simpler to do so as an engineer. Managers are accountable to their reports. If an engineer operates best with in-person discussions regularly, then a remote manager is not set up to make that person as successful as possible. That, in my eyes, does not quite live up to the trust placed in the manager role. I don't see this flexibility as a big reason for my transition, but given where I am in my life, the lower overhead of potentially going remote is a plus.?

There are so many things I'm excited about in returning to an IC role, the above captures several highlights, but there's much more! It's important to note how amazing LinkedIn is as a workplace that empowers a transition like this; transformation is a core cultural value for a reason. Over the next few editions, I'll likely return to some of the ideas discussed here as I sink my teeth back into my new role, and I look forward to discussing all of my thoughts about this with anyone interested. Please reach out if you have questions about how I came to this decision or want to chat about how you are thinking about your path. I'm so excited about what's ahead, time to get to work!