I’ve been working from the 2nd year of college(in limited scope during college). Twice at startups, once at an MNC, and once for GSOC for which I was given a stipend. Theoretically, I had 1.5 years of experience if you include internships post graduation.
After graduation I was given a boon in joining a very amazing company, which I worked at for 6 months before leaving due to a conflict of my own personal passions. I think throughout my experiences I’ve met 3 different kind of managers I would report to, and what I think of these 3 types
- The people leader
- very people oriented, very social
- Has his team’s back, no matter what
- May or may not be technical it really depends
- Was insanely chill about stuff
- Got shit done from you regardless of being chill, since he had a good rapport with you, he could gently push you
- Could be incredibly stubborn at times about goals
- The team’s success is his success.
- The engineer
- typically a higher position engineer turned into a manager or CTO
- Results oriented(I don’t care what blockers you have I could do it so can you)
- Sees team Engineers more as tools to accomplish goals(not to imply a lack of empathy however)
- Very direct(nothing wrong with this, I appreciate this!)
- Great to work under technically wise. You can appreciate their brilliance. Same cannot be said about their communication skills.
- The teams success is his success as well.
- The lala manager:
- the word lala might be a corporate slang of sorts, but I had to work under one of these.
- Mostly confused about requirements
- Daily 180 degree turns about work
- Just horrid to work under.
- Can’t say more or I’d be in trouble.
I appreciate type 1 and 2. Both have their pros and cons and it really comes down to the nature of work you are doing. I have worked in everything between firmware and frontend engineering so I have a slightly broader view of what work can feel like.
I’m still quite young, but have worked for many orgs. I have passed over the OSS org for GSOC since that was a mentorship.