Hey friend,
Today we will look at what typical day-to-day looks like in the life of an Engineering Leader.
Let's take a look. Well, meetings, lots of them, but each meeting and time block has a purpose.
If you think of a pie, you can assume that 20% of your time would be involved in technical discussions, 50% in managerial activities such as one on ones, stakeholder management etc., 20% of your time or more in recruiting and interviewing, the rest is your focus time. These are rough numbers and can change drastically depending on the quarter.
As a manager, you will notice that you write less code than an Individual Contributor (IC), but it is part of your role to influence the team in the best way possible. It would be best if you had a solid understanding of the architecture to know where to help the team and improve them. You can be involved in code reviews, pair programming or unblocking them wherever necessary.
As we learned in the course - The First 90 Days, It is essential to know about your partners, i.e. your trifecta or quadfecta and plan ahead with them. You will be creating timelines, assigning tasks to folks on your team, strategizing how you want to plan and build and aligning with stakeholders.
If you are growing a lot, this time can change drastically, but it's essential to connect with folks in your network, interview folks, and bring the best folks to work for you. Always go the extra mile to make the experience of the candidate smoother. It will always pay off.
This time is for you to focus and get work done. Try to evaluate where you should be focusing your time and energy; sometimes, this time will be spent on miscellaneous tasks. For focus time, try to block time in your calendar, which lets people know it's your focus time, and try not to book over it. You might also want to practice giving feedback and prepping for your important weekly meetings.
You need to remember that you need to vacuum up chaos. Anytime you leave a meeting, you should have more certainty and a concrete plan.
Have a great rest of your week!