Ask HN: Hacking or management?

📰 Hacker News · vcald64

Learn to manage a team effectively, even if it's not ideal, to develop transferable skills for future tech ventures

intermediate Published 10 Nov 2015
Action Steps
  1. Assess your current team's strengths and weaknesses to identify areas for improvement
  2. Develop strategies to motivate and improve the skills of your mediocre programmers
  3. Implement agile methodologies and coding standards to improve engineering culture
  4. Network with other tech leads and managers to learn from their experiences
  5. Set aside time for personal technical development to stay current with industry trends
Who Needs to Know This

Tech leads and managers can benefit from learning to manage teams with varying skill levels, as it prepares them for future leadership roles

Key Insight

💡 Management skills are transferable, but it's crucial to balance learning to manage with personal technical development

Share This
🚀 Develop transferable management skills, even with a mediocre team, to prepare for future tech leadership roles

Key Takeaways

Learn to manage a team effectively, even if it's not ideal, to develop transferable skills for future tech ventures

Full Article

I currently work as a tech lead at a very large company outside the US. The product I'm in charge of has tens of thousands of users. The problem is that I manage a team of mediocre programmers and the engineering culture is terribly broken (cowboy coding, no tests, people don't care much about writing good code ie. no passion, etc). I feel bad for not learning more technical things lately (due to the lousy culture) but I also feel it might be a good thing to learn how to manage. My goal being to start a tech company eventually, I ask you: Is the skill of management transferable from a team of bad/average programmers to a team of good/great ones? I'm afraid I might be wasting my time here and should look for a job where I get to hang around smarter people and learn more technical stuff. PS: I don't think I have enough experience to get hired as a tech lead in charge of a strong team.
Read full article → ← Back to Reads

Related Videos

How to Track Time in ProjectManager
How to Track Time in ProjectManager
ProjectManager
The Psychology of Project Leadership - The Shift Every PM Must Make from Expert to Leader
The Psychology of Project Leadership - The Shift Every PM Must Make from Expert to Leader
Susanne Madsen
The Leadership Lesson Every Manager Needs to Hear
The Leadership Lesson Every Manager Needs to Hear
Simerjeet Singh
Why You Resist Change Even When It’s Good for You
Why You Resist Change Even When It’s Good for You
Simerjeet Singh
Rejected? Watch This Before You Give Up | Career Guidance for Students in India by Simerjeet Singh
Rejected? Watch This Before You Give Up | Career Guidance for Students in India by Simerjeet Singh
Simerjeet Singh
Containment in Führung und Change-Management: Warum gutes Zuhören nicht reicht
Containment in Führung und Change-Management: Warum gutes Zuhören nicht reicht
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Radel - HTW Berlin