Engineering management is a one-way door?

Season 2, Episode 1 • 27:22

Engineering management is a one-way door?

Welcome back to I'm a Software Engineer ~ What Next? The podcast for devs figuring out their next move. Hosted by James Wilson and Matt Sinclair, we talk honestly about what it takes to build a meaningful career in tech.

Season one is done. Season two kicks off a little differently: shorter, looser episodes with just Matt and James in between the usual guests, each one built around a topic that's on a lot of engineers' minds right now.

First up, the line doing the rounds: management is a one-way door. James isn't convinced it's true. Matt turned up with three reasons it was never the door everyone thinks it is.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Span of control going from a "big" 7-12 to Facebook's 20, now reportedly aiming at 50, and what that does to the org chart
  • The shift from pyramid to hourglass, and why the middle is getting gutted instead of the bottom
  • ICs out-earning managers (the reported average salary at Anthropic is $750k; UK junior starting salaries near £240k)
  • "The cost of readmission": why agentic coding makes the door back to IC cheaper than it used to be
  • The super IC: Matt doing five-to-six people's worth of work solo since September, and the one scaling question he still can't answer
  • Why the real risk of agentic coding isn't that you can't code, it's that you can't tell what's good
  • The tax bomb nobody's pricing in: gut the highly paid middle and a chunk of government revenue goes with it
  • Why Matt is building micro-businesses for his 20 and 21 year old kids instead of sending them job hunting

⏱️ Chapters

  • 0:00 Is engineering management a one-way door?
  • 2:00 Span of control: from 7 to 12, to 20, now 50
  • 2:39 From pyramid to hourglass: the middle gets gutted
  • 4:32 ICs out-earning managers
  • 5:36 The cost of readmission: the door back to IC
  • 9:20 The real risk of agentic coding: you can't tell what's good
  • 10:10 The super IC: five to six people's work, solo
  • 17:54 The tax bomb nobody's pricing in
  • 23:23 Micro-businesses for the kids instead of job hunting

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