AI for Engineering managers: adapt now or trail behind

AI for Engineering managers: adapt now or trail behind

Remember when a five‑digit Stack Overflow score was a flex? Today that, and a vintage 2022 playbook will buy you precisely zero leverage. Yesterday’s job, tomorrow’s irrelevance Many Engineering managers still run on three rituals: Status ✨astrology✨ or endless forecasting of ticket constellations. Hours massaging burndown charts, Jira dashboards, stand‑up forecasts – cargo‑cult evidence that the sprint is “on track”. Stakeholder appeasement management: slide decks, project reviews, “quick syncs” to keep exec egos fed and legal teams comfy. People babysitting – counting story points, asking to update Jira, tolerance checks for burnout, sniffing out AI-powered overemployment. By the way, did you know of r/overemployed? However, none of those moves the product faster. Meanwhile, AI agents are quietly doing code reviews, generating boilerplate, even writing RFCs. The org chart hasn’t noticed – yet. ...

April 19, 2025 · 4 min
A large, full-canopied tree in a park under a blue sky

Short review: “Search in Plain Sight”

Priceless find Someone posted a recommendation for this book on one of the LeadDev Slack channels. I always considered recruiters partners rather than merely a “resource”, so I became interested in the book as a way to learn more about that world. It promised to show recruitment from within, and then I discovered that it is written for candidates. It doesn’t get better than this! The book is “Search in Plain Sight: Demystifying Executive Search” by Somer Hackley. ...

March 20, 2024 · 3 min
Make your new recruiter work for you

Make your new recruiter work for you 🧑‍💻

Your team is growing, and hiring has to scale proportionally. It’s a great moment to consider adding some power to the team by getting a recruitment professional on board. It is also worth remembering that the recruiter is the face of your company in the talent pool. Often, the recruiter will be the only person candidates will come in contact with. These are all very valid reasons to make sure your new recruiter works for you and truly helps strengthen the team. ...

May 15, 2021 · 5 min