Your Next Manager

Things are currently a bit grim for tech companies. Layoffs.fyi reports ~300K total positions cut between 2023 and 2024. Carta reports that startup capital raised fell sharply across all stages, down rounds were more common, and the ongoing wave of startup shutdowns continued.

As a result, I see a steady stream of #opentowork tags in my LinkedIn feed these days. Many did not choose to look for their next thing. It’s a time of change. And some folks are having a difficult time finding a new role.

If you’ve been thrust into the job market, it can be a little scary.

So I want to take this opportunity to remind you of something that you already know but that is oh-so-easy to forget in the crush of interviewing: while you’re a candidate in their pipeline, every manager you interview with is a candidate in yours. You are currently hiring for the position of Your Next Manager. It’s a critical hire with the potential to make or break your experience at a company and either help or hinder your career.

So what do you look for in a manager? I believe that a good manager…

…sees you as an individual. They take the time to understand your strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and tailors their approach to you.

…is clear and direct when communicating their vision and expectations about the work, the team, and your role.

…is at least as interested in fostering your professional growth as they are in delegating work to you or managing your performance.

…operates from a principle of informed consent. Although they cannot always tell you everything (because some things are confidential), and although they cannot always give you a choice (because sometimes they don’t have a lot of options themselves), they do what they can to inform you about the context and the choices you have within that context.

…actively solicits feedback about your work from people who have the opportunity to see you in action in ways that they do not.

…delivers feedback in a thoughtful, supportive, and kind way, providing details to make the feedback concrete and actionable.

…seeks to enable you and the team, not control you.

…looks for opportunities for you to stretch and grow in project and team assignments (unless you have told them you don’t want that, and then they don’t).

…acts as your champion, touting your accomplishments and putting your name forward for opportunities you would appreciate, especially when you are not in the room to speak for yourself.

…acts as a coach and mentor, but recognizes the limits of their own experience and doesn’t presume to teach you what they themselves don’t know.

…makes a point of connecting you with ideas, resources, and people to help you learn.

…would rather see you grow than hold you back, even if that means they risk losing you from their team.

That’s my list, but you probably have your own. Maybe you want someone who cares as deeply about diversity and inclusion as you do. Or maybe you want to work for someone who is good at setting boundaries and maintaining the work / life balance for people on their team. Whatever is important to you, write it down. (And if you’re interviewing virtually, you can tape the list to your monitor as a reminder.)

So how do you interview for these qualities?

It's not easy. Sometimes people tell you what they think you want to hear. Sometimes they tell you what they wish were true instead of what is. There is no sure-fire test to be certain that a manager you are interviewing will actually do what they say, especially if they find themselves in a tight spot. And hypothetical questions tend to evoke idealistic responses.

What you can do is be clear and direct about what you want from your next manager. You can say “It’s important to me that my next manager is invested in my professional growth.” Then you can follow up with a question about their experience: “Can you give me some examples of how you’ve helped others in your group grow?” Or “I want my next manager to support me in doing my best work even when the team is under pressure to deliver on a deadline. How have you handled situations like that in the past?”

Their answers will help you decide if you want to work for this person. Moreover, your questions telegraph what matters to you, helping the manager decide if they think they’re a fit for what you need.

Could a pointed question lose you a job? Possibly. But if you weren’t going to get what you needed, was it a job you wanted?

It’s possible that you’ve been interviewing long enough that you’re saying: “Yes. Yes it was. I need a job. Any job. Even if they’re not a great manager, why would I tank my chances?” It’s a choice you can make, of course. You can settle for a manager who you suspect won’t support you the way you want to be supported. But I’ll say it again: your manager has the potential to make or break your experience at a company.

Perhaps if you’re feeling antsy about that next job, instead of settling for a manager who isn’t a fit for you, it’s better to widen your candidate pool of potential managers even further. I believe having a great manager at a mediocre opportunity is better than having a mediocre manager at a great opportunity. A great manager can make any opportunity worthwhile, while a mediocre manager can make even a great opportunity terrible. So optimizing your job search to find a great manager can simultaneously improve the odds that your next position will boost your career.

One way to widen your candidate pool is to take another look at job ads that you initially filtered out. Could the position be more interesting if you knew it came with a great manager? If so, maybe it’s worth taking another look. Another way is to reach out to the great managers you’ve had in the past. Even if it’s been many years since you were last in touch, it’s possible they happen to have a you-shaped hole in their org, or know someone who does.

Best of luck in your search, and I hope you hire yourself a great next manager.