Working With Your Manager Q&A and Videos

Hi everyone,

I work for a company that offers online web and mobile apps for US-based customers. As part of a recent re-organization, all mobile, web, and backend engineers have been combined into a single on-call rotation. Even though most of these 20+ engineers (mobile + Web engineers) have not much context about the backend system, my director wants to alleviate the frequent on-call rotation, and he proposes having a healthy size of on-call rotation that uses the "follow the sun" model approach, which involves training engineers in different time zones to have knowledge transfer about the backend system and potential issues. I'm curious to know how I can effectively onboard and train over 20 web and mobile engineers for the on-call rotation while following this model.

The Backend team has compiled a comprehensive support run-book log for each corresponding issue/alert, which shows the severity, priority, and range of the issue. The on-call rotation involves acknowledging alerts and following the steps outlined in the run-book.

Please note that the support run-book is not a 100% comprehensive source of truth since the production system is integrated with multiple 3rd party APIs and systems, and the backend platform serves as middleware for both mobile and web applications. There may be instances where issues are caused by third-party vendors and cannot be solved by the on-call person.

I would love to hear your thoughts and perspectives on this matter. I'm also meeting with my boss for our one-on-one to talk about his idea. This is still an experiment, but would like to get people's perspective. Thank you!

I've gotten feedback from a mid performance review and my manager wants to see improvements in various areas. It includes improving my debugging skills by paying closer attention to pertinent details (and not getting distracted) for example.

Since then, I've become much more conscious and aware of the errors that I run into and much more deliberate in my debugging approach. This has resulted in me being able to diagnose problems much more accurately, and has also lended to me problem-solving much more effectively as well.

The problem is I'm not sure how to best demonstrate (or prove) that value improvement to my manager. Unlike PRs (which are often more visible in the value it demonstrates) -- you see what you get, my debugging skills/tactics are not readily obvious to the outside party unless they're observing my day-to-day activity. I can say that I've gotten better but if I have nothing to back that up with aren't they just words without weight? Who's to say that I'm even right in my own assessment without social feedback? I could be dunning kruger for all I know.

Is it enough for me to simply document those performance improvements and share (or talk about) them with my manager?

Note: My ultimate goal is to get promoted so I'm trying to (1) show that I've taken their feedback seriously and (2) demonstrate actual improvement since my last performance review.

Let me know if I'm thinking about this the right way or if am I overcomplicating it. Thanks!

Hey folks, I’m currently working at a Tier 2 tech company that enforces mandatory quotas for categorizing employees as not meeting expectations.

Recently, after a management change , I’ve felt unfairly targeted by my new manager. Despite positive feedback from other senior staff and even my director, my manager constantly questions my performance and has even rejected my reimbursements, making the situation feel very personal.

Additionally, I’ve been given an unfairly large workload and have been isolated, as my peers, including senior engineers, have been instructed not to assist me.

This has left me mentally drained and struggling to find time to prepare for job opportunities elsewhere, despite not being constrained by visa issues.

Given this challenging environment, what strategies would you recommend for managing these workplace difficulties and making time for job hunting in such a demanding job market? Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Hey,

I have 12+ years of experience and would like to move to management ladder. I have been working with my manager for over a year to get there.

Couple weeks ago I got to know that my manager is leaving the company. I am worried that with his departure all the effort I put in over the last one year would be wasted. My manager mentioned that he has recommended me as his potential replacement to his skip(Director) but he(manager) is not sure if the company will back-fill the position or not.

My departing manager gave me the following suggestions so that I stay on track with my career goals:

• Have regular conversations with the skip(Director) and VP so that they know I am very much interested in moving to leadership positions
• Keep HR folks in the loop too, so that they can spot/help me with any managerial positions opening up outside of my org(different team in the company)

I have monthly skip level 1:1 & have mentioned this interest of mine(moving to management ladder) to him.

I am not sure how frequently should I talk to VP & HR as well as how to bring this career aspiration of mine to their notice. Should I have monthly sync's with VP & HR personnel too?

I'm feeling very undervalued at my current position. I've been working on my service the longest and therefore was the one that onboarded most of my team. In 2023 my manager and tech lead have largely been too busy to help. For instance, I only have 1-1s one every 2-3 weeks.

The new members we got on our team were new to the company and one in particular has relatively poor communication skills, so I have had to spend a lot of time onboarding them.

Unfortunately, in my performance reviews the main emphasis is on the work that I am delivering and there is not much emphasis on the impact I've had through the rest of the team. But the couple of months I tried focusing more on my work, I noticed the culture on the team degrading.

The hardest part for me has been that I have found my manager very unhelpful in helping me with my career and other frustrations. There have been multiple times where instead of helping I've felt as if he's blamed me. I have expressed this to them, but they have not changed.

Now I'm in late stages of interviews with 3 companies. I estimate the pay increase would be between 10-25% if I receive an offer.

Our team also just changed significantly, we swapped a mid-level engineer with a senior-engineer and got a new manager. They will be reporting to my previous manager so that manager will still be around.

I'm optimistic that the new manager and teammate will upgrade my situation but given the more than a year of frustration without improvement I'm still leaning towards leaving. Though I am having second thoughts as well.

I'd love to get any advice on how to handle my situation. Thanks so much!

Background : I'm a new-grad junior engineer, recently joined the company around 3 months ago, so still pretty early in my career. I'm currently working on an assigned project which I own and believe it has impact.

Details : My manager recently recommended I take on a quarter-long project in parallel to my current project (as we're short on bandwidth), which I don't feel very passionate about and don't see much impact in it. My understanding is that the work for that project will be on & off while my main focus will still be on my original project

Question : It is good to take on additional responsibility, as long as I have the bandwidth for it, I agree. I'm just not sure if this new project would be beneficial or is the best thing to work on.

How can I handle this situation ? Should I be concerned too much about the project's impact (as opposed to taking more responsibility), especially since I'm still early on in my role / career ?

Hello,

I joined my team as a new grad engineer a year back. Recently, in my 1:1 conversation with EM, he brought up talks about a promotion to next level and a plan to execute it in next couple of months.

Although, I think I am getting better in my current level, I don’t wish to take on added responsibilities of next level from this year, due to some personal problems.

My question is, how can I communicate this to my EM without coming across as someone who is not willing to grow or worst an employee just quiet quitting?

Also, as someone who is new to the tech industry, what are the disadvantages of delaying your promotion?

My manager gave his 2 week notice today for personal reasons. The company is working on backfilling his role which in the meantime will be handled by his manager. I recently started this job a few months ago, so while I have worked closely with my manager, I haven't yet worked with his manager or other managers in the org yet.

Here are my questions around making this transition smooth:

• What can I do in the next 2 weeks to ensure that the work I've done with my manager is captured well for other people in the org to notice?
• How do I best approach the last one-on-one with my manager?
• And how can I make a good impression with my new interim manager?

If you receive an offer from a different team, how do you communicate to your manager that you plan on moving to a new team / opportunity at Microsoft. What if you don't have the best relationship with them?

At Microsoft, the current manager does not need to approve team switch, regardless of whether it's a software role or not.

Hi Team,

My team has a really great manager who I've been working under for past 3~ years who has aided me in fast tracking my career growth, however there will be change in structure, and our team will be led by a new Manager. As a result, I'll be required to build up the relationship with the new manager, earn trust, etc.

However, at the same time I'm worried that all the progress I've put forwards to build a good case for my promotion might get lost as I've been doing a lot of work that doesn't directly reflect in overall Team's Yearly planning such as drastic improvements in OE (Saving multiple SDE weeks yearly), many architectural upgrades to existing systems (as a clean up activity while working on my main project) etc.

I feel these data points might get lost: How can I ensure that the transition between managers will not end up affecting my long term growth plan? I still have 3-4 weeks till the transition is complete.

I am starting to realize that my manager might not be the most competent engineering leader. While he's a nice guy and has been very good to me, I have noticed recently that:

• he does not get much respect from his XFN coworkers
  • a data scientist on the team has confided to me that he does not think that my manager is technically capable
  • other stakeholders (e.g. PMs) do not seem to value his opinions
• he has not been able to show business impact and value for the team, and it's likely that my team will receive additional scrutiny as a cost center
• he always seems to over-promise and under-deliver every quarter, with the excuse that he can always move the goals/timelines around come review time
• my manager also mentioned that he did not get a great perf review rating in the most recent round of reviews, and I'm worried that this might percolate down to my own reviews

In short he seems to be doing the opposite of what Taro advises (both as EM and IC). What do I do at this point? Jump ship to a different team?

[Another recent question asked about toxic managers -- to be clear, my manager has been anything but toxic and I am on very friendly terms with him. I am just worried that continuing to be on his team would hamper my own career growth if he doesn't know what he's doing.]

Hello Everyone, I have 16+ years of Software Engineering and 6+ years of Engineering management experience. I have worked in 14 different companies (ranging from startups to FAANG --> ). And I really enjoy helping engineers grow, building teams and fostering the team culture.

Currently I am an Engineering Manager at Meta and I am interested to prepare a course that will benefit the highest amount of people on this platform.

Could you please pick the course (just comment with 1-10 number or suggest your title) from this list that you would like Taro to have:

1. Top 10 secrets of becoming an engineer managers like
2. How to be the top engineer of the team?
3. How to become an engineer that grows faster than anyone?
4. How to be an ideal engineer that manager wants to promote?
5. Top 10 mistakes engineers are usually doing in communication with their managers
6. The Hidden Pitfalls in Engineer-Manager Communication (and How to Avoid Them)
7. What Your Manager Wishes You Knew: Essential Communication Tips for Engineers
8. Cracking the Code of Manager-Engineer Communication: Common Mistakes and Solutions
9. How To Transition To M1
10. How To Be A Strong M1

I have a weekly 1:1 with my manager. I want to share the 1:1 doc I've been keeping, but I'm embarrassed that I feel like my onboarding (I'm in my 6th week on the job) has been slow and I haven't hit the 1 month target we set in our first meeting.

Should I share my 1:1 document with my manager given that I haven't hit this target? My guess is I should bite the bullet and do it, because the logic is he already knows.

The argument not to share would be "no need to remind him of my failures".

I know that 1:1s should be awkward, so I guess I should share this info.

Thanks!

I'm an E5 mobile engineer at a Big Tech company. Due to lots of manager attrition, I currently report to a hands-off Director with too many reports to have regular 1:1s. I found an awesome EM who agreed to let me join his team and promised me E6-scope projects on his team. My Director is his skip-level, so I'm staying in the same org.

However, before I could make the official team switch, my TPM loaned me to another team lacking mobile resources to meet the TPM's own OKR. He did not bother talking to the awesome EM or me beforehand. My scope on the TPM's project is E5 at most. Now that project is dragging on. It's already code complete, but they want to keep me on that project until it's fully rolled out. We're waiting for mobile adoption to reach a certain threshold before we can do a force upgrade. Due to the code chill around the upcoming holidays, we likely can't do the force upgrade until next year. In the meantime, the project's EM is asking me to investigate pre-existing bugs in their feature. The awesome EM met with the TPM and that project's EM to fast-track my transfer, explaining that he needs me for Q1 planning & our team's own OKRs, but the latter two insisted that I need to support their project until it's completely done, which includes the force upgrade. Am I stuck on this project until January next year or is there a way to switch teams more quickly?

How early in the internship do you make your intentions of wanting to get a return offer clear and how would you go about doing so, do you just talk to your manager or your mentors as well?

We use JIRA for writing up tasks, which the respective engineers always make, but there is no sprint. So, we need more sprint retrospection.
All communications are done very vaguely via a Slack message, sometimes a word with little but no context or a screenshot.
I want you to know that I'm concerned about communicating this request for proper planning with my manager.

There is a policy in my company (Tier 2, in the likes of VMWare etc) that the managers should connect PRIOR to the interview.

I personally think this is discouraging, as the current manager can really screw you over if they want to. My relationship with my current manager is ok. Not great. However, I have been standing up for myself a lot as that is causing some under current on my team and with this manager. I found a fantastic opportunity within the company and want to interview.

How can I strategize given this company policy?

My fear is inform manager -> they tank my performance review / bonus / raise ( it is currently perf cycle now) -> interview reject -> Back on this team.

I wanted to share an update and seek advice following my first 1:1 with my manager. Based on one of Alex's earlier suggestions, I inquired about how many commits I should aim to have landed after my first month to gauge my ramp-up progress. My manager mentioned that he doesn't track commit counts as a metric.

Given this, I'm curious about how I should approach setting tangible goals or milestones for my initial period at the company. Without commit counts as a metric, what would be a good way to measure my progress and contributions during the ramp-up phase?

I'd greatly appreciate your insights on this.

Following up on my previous message, I've been pondering whether my manager's response regarding not tracking commit counts might be influenced by my recent joining of the team. Is it common for managers to initially downplay the importance of specific metrics like commit counts for new team members, perhaps to alleviate early pressure or for other reasons?

I ran into this issue a few times so far:

1. I need to solve a problem.
2. 2 senior people (could be engineers or managers) tell me to use different solutions.
3. They do not talk to each other directly.

I'm the middleman, bouncing back and forth between solutions. Getting blocked at the PR level (sometimes before that too) by either stake holders.

It's demotivating, I do not get things done quick.

What should I do?

I've noticed that my manager often doesn't acknowledge my suggestions or thoughts during team meetings, even though our one-on-one interactions are fine. I feel that high-impact opportunities are given to other team members, despite my requests for them. I am moved to support work recently (manager claims that this is also high impact and there is scope to reduce operational work). Additionally, I received the no salary increment in my team in last review.

I also feel that my manager supports a teammate at the same level as me more than they support me, even though we are both working towards promotion.

I'm not sure what to do—whether to stay and hope things improve or transfer to another team and start fresh. If I change teams, I will need to start working from scratch for my promotion.

I’m currently working as an L4 Machine Learning Engineer at a mid-sized public company, and I’ve recently finished L5 SWE interview with Google and am now in the hiring committee stage. The recruiter told me that my interview performance was mixed, so the chances for L5 are small, but L4 is possible. According to , I’m expecting around a 20% salary increase (and, of course, Google’s other benefits are much better than those at my current company). However, the new position is for a SWE role working on hardware products, which involves writing C++, a completely new technology and field for me.

Reasons for wanting to stay:

1. I have a good relationship with my manager and teammates, and the work is more interesting and aligned with my strengths. If possible, I still want to continue working as a Machine Learning Engineer in the future.
2. I’m working on software side projects and writing a blog, and I’m worried that after joining Google, these external projects might be restricted.

Reasons for wanting to leave:

1. Better salary and benefits, and a higher salary ceiling (it’s almost impossible to reach FAANG L5-level salary in my current job).
2. I was previously a Googler, so I’m familiar with Google’s culture (though I was laid off in 2023).
3. I have a poor relationship with my current skip manager. We have many technical disagreements, I don’t adapt well to his management style, and he has a negative impression of me.

This position is not in the U.S., so the chances of being laid off again should be lower (but who knows).

How should I evaluate these two options?

And, since my skip manager has a negative impression of me, should I actively look for other jobs, even if it's not Google?

I switched jobs a few months ago. Recently, I shared with my skip during our quarterly 1:1 that I'm not feeling much of a long-term vision or impact in my current team. He hinted at a potential opportunity to work on a new project crucial for an upcoming product launch.

I'm eager for growth but hesitant about switching teams again, considering it would be my third move in a short time. Also, the details of what we'll build, how it'll integrate with other products, etc are still uncertain, as is the org structure for the new project's ownership. This raises concerns about stability. However, I'm inclined to embrace the opportunity, especially after reading about embracing ambiguity for growth from Alex's LinkedIn post.

My ultimate goal is to transition to a different org, but I know I need to demonstrate impact first. Any advice on navigating this situation would be greatly appreciated.

I've heard it's always good to try and understand your manager's perspective, their expectations, and what they need from you.

I assume most junior engineers wouldn't have prior management experience, so it would be useful/insightful for junior engineers gain some perspectives on the priorities and challenges a manager faces whilst running a team, so they can better help the team.

Hi team, as per my current situation there are cycles for promotion in August and in Feb. I am targeting the Mid-Level title and was told to wait until next Feb for Mid-Level instead of coming August.

I asked for data points and was told I needed more time to mature. I actually would have appreciated some actionable data points if there were any, so that I and my manager can track progress.
I have the following 2 pointers :

1. On a personal front I want to aim for the promotion in Feb and want to let my manager know my intentions and pick up work accordingly however I don't know how to put it across.

2. I would have liked if there were some actionable data points to nail promotion since my manager didn't mention anything explicitly, and I have read and watched guidance about your career is in your hands so wanted to know how can I extract these pointers from my Manager?

I ask these because 1:1's currently . And would have appreciated it if there were actual data points /action items

Would highly appreciate insights from folks on the platform . Thank you :)