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What questions should I ask a prospective engineering manager in an interview?

by sophyphreak on 10/28/22, 2:53 PM with 1 comments

I've had three engineering managers so far, and all three I would not consider technical. None of them had any experience writing any code in the languages and frameworks we worked in. I think none them have even done any web development. Despite that, two of the three had major opinions on our coding standards (whether or not to do testing, whether or not to refactor, etc.).

I'm not opposed to the engineering manager having such opinions, but it would be stellar if they could speak at least somewhat intelligently about what my day-to-day job even looks like.

What kind of questions can I ask that can help me vet a prospective manager? What kind of answers should I look for to those questions?

  • by jrowley on 10/29/22, 5:26 AM

    It sounds like you’re interested in having a technical manager? I’d ask them questions about the stack used at the company/team, why it’s the way it is, who made those decisions, what parts are working out great, what parts need improvement… then maybe about actual software delivery, eg how does something go from idea to implementation - what are the testing standards in place and why? How does a developer know when it is safe to release something?

    If the manager can talk thoughtfully about these things at a technical level, or at least acknowledge when they have gaps they may be a good manager for you. Granted there are a lot of other qualifications for being a competent manager in my opinion. Good luck!