Episode 509: I hate AI software dev, so should I become a manager and leading, not doing

About this episode

The episode discusses career transitions from software engineering to management, addressing concerns about AI and team dynamics.

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I am a senior software engineer at big tech and need a career change. With the rise of AI, I no longer enjoy this profession and panic everyday just waiting for a huge round of layoffs. At this point I feel like I am on some assembly line hitting enter like a monkey. Therefore I have been thinking of changing lanes and would like to get into engineering management. On the one hand I have enjoyed mentoring, strategic planning and coordinating projects across vendors and across teams, but besides that I don’t have clear evidence that this profession would fit me. In my current job there is no immediate opportunity to step up and manage a cross team project at the moment, so I am not sure how I can figure out if engineering management is the right choice for me. How do I figure this out without doing the job and how does one transition into it, probably as an external hire or transfer hire? Paolo asks, I’ve stepped into a senior role recently. I’m no longer the primary driver on projects. I’m supposed to create space for junior developers to lead, make decisions, and own outcomes. My job is to mentor and support, not to take…

People in this episode

Hosts: Dave, Jamison

Topics covered

• career change
• engineering management
• mentoring
• AI impact
• project management
• team dynamics

Keywords

• AI software development
• engineering management
• career transition
• mentoring
• project coordination
• team leadership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: big tech

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