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l am currently a rising junior in
college interning this summer at
Amazon as a Business Analyst. I
would really like to break into
product management and believe in
my 5 weeks so far I have shown skills
to back that up. Would it be
acceptable to ask my manager to
recommend me for a product
management internship next
summer? My midpoint meeting with
my manager (and his manager) is
next Friday
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I thought tech leads were still technical. Are you looking for be an IC for the rest of your career?
My tech leads in my engineering teams are still very technical and lead the technical aspects of delivery alongside their team. Some have line management responsibilities and some are still classed as individual contributors. They are 70% hands on still, so I wouldn’t worry about being stuck in a management role.
Principals in my opinion make way more and your value is much bigger with that title at your current company or future roles. Purdue principal and I work with nothing but aerospace and defense engineers.
As a tech lead, I was very much technical. I also worked longer days so I could update schedules, plan upcoming tasks, distribute personnel, etc. You just have to find the right balance.
Future of IT is Uncertain, beware AI is learning every nanosecond.
Copilot is taking over lots of routines it's just a matter of time.
I am considering to learn a trade
Something less stressful.
Good Luck!!
AI won't steal your job, but a person who knows how to use AI will. the job my kids will one-day fill probably hasn't even been invented yet
The technical lead is a senior engineer, not a manager; the title will reflect this as "Lead Engineer," given your advanced technical expertise. You will be responsible for leading multiple projects.
Go with your gut
I had a similar choice years ago and very often think my career would be so much better now if I had kept managing people instead of working towards principle product owner.
What is the main reason you feel this way?
I actually love tech work. It's a real break from being an engineer plus you can give them your advice and opinions when it's not working right
A Tech lead is 1 step below manager. Modeling team behaviour and being the technical expert engineers look up to and emulate. You are a decision maker, pm, team lead, and initiative coordinator all rolled into 1. your focus is much less on the engineering work, and more focused on the lead aspect providing technical guidance. You are there to help develop and encourage growth. Our company is about 60/40
Engineering/leading
Here are some professional
Terms
Fragility and stability
Our wires in our mind
Are under constant
Work
Some are temporary some
Are Giftings
If under certain pressures
Your Fragile comes up too
Much, this will distract from
Your ability to flow
How much pressure can
You handle?
Can you develop systems
Where your subordinates
Will keep their belief in
Your abilities, or will they
Be unsure about that?
That is what makes a leader
In certain positions
If you think you would not
Be able to go higher. Just
Excell where you are at
This is not unwise, our wires
Have limits.. Just be honest
With yourself. Not looking
At those higher level leads
Could cause you to not see
It yourself
So this question has to do
With teams and how you
Function with that team.
If teams change, you need
A foundation. If you have a
Team and you feel this +
Applies to you, you will
Succeed. Do not overextend
Yourself
I thought this was a poem
I have Tech Leads and even got the company I work for to start implementing them when Shareholders said to reduce Managerial roles. It matters on who you work for and how your company utilizes the Tech Lead title, but you are basically supposed to be a Lead Engineer, but you have a Supervisor/Managers power. You will not only learn your area, but you may be expected to be diverse in anything in your team or department as well, and supervise everyone on the team or even be used by your boss to Lead everyone for them. It can be a lot of work at times, this title is a companies typical way to reduce cost by not promoting you to a manager but keep having you do work. You either pick your poison of a direct title like Principle Engineer, Lead Engineer, Manager or take all the poisons.
Did your manager give you a description of the tech lead role, and/or the principle engineer role? There's a lot of variation between title and actual duties from company to company. At my last job "Lead Software Engineer" was still all technical and no people management - it just involved more responsibility for holding the big picture of the products/architecture.
Honestly, only you can answer this question. You need to think about what you want out of your career long-term. When you start to move into the direction of people managing that becomes a whole other beast in itself. Where as being a tech lead should still have a good balance of mentoring and leading people while being hands on, but tends to start moving into the direction of people management.
If you feel like you have more of a desire to still be hands on I would say go for the principal route and enjoy your time because another tech lead role I’m sure will come around again. Once you start moving into people management it’s harder to go backwards.
Work with your manager to fully understand the role, and ask what kind of development plan they have for this role to set you up for success. If you feel like it’s lacking press on it and if they can’t produce one it might not be a good fit to set you in the right direction.
Being a tech lead vs an engineering manager is significantly different but is a good step to move into that direction. I can tell you what I look for in my engineering managers and how I want them to support there team. Let me know and I can elaborate more on that or anything else to help in your decision making 🙂.
A common pattern for any engineer that can communicate, plan, show empathy, be personable, etc.
I struggled with it for years and then decided due to my sports background it was important for me to stay on the field. If you're more of "coach" than a "player" then go for management. Personally, I'm nearly certain I'll always stay in the game if at all possible.