I had already read (and I reread on a yearly basis) How to Win Friends and Influence People, so most of the ideas shared in the book are things I already practise. Engineering Management for the Rest of Us” is an excellent primer for engineers looking to transition into management roles. While it might benefit from a deeper exploration of diverse management styles, the practical insights it offers are invaluable for those new to the field.

It’s imperative that we as managers learn as much as we can and work on ourselves, so that our teams may enjoy a healthy working life and strong relationships. The central theme of the book revolves around the transformation of technical professionals into successful managers. Engineering for the Management for the Rest of Us is a book that will gear you up for a journey into engineering management (or honestly kind of management, frankly) by highlighting a lot of common technical aspects of the career.I highly recommend this book to anyone in any career, moving up the ladder and noticing that leading a team will be a task — sooner or later. Grab your post-its and notebooks, this is such a fun and practical read for anyone going into management from the engineering path. Many of the thoughts here enforced what I had learnt from reading blog posts about who a senior developer is, like . He not only knew the author but also reads profusely so I knew the recommendation was going to be good. However reading it with some experience, there is nothing that goes beyond obvious things or high-level summaries of concepts from other books.

I wrote this book because there's so much no one told me about management that I wished I would have known. A lot of Engineering Managers and leaders studied for years and years to become the best Engineer they possibly could be. For example, Sarah focuses on Pull Requests quite a bit, even to a point of mentioning possible branch naming patterns!It's not just important, it's crucial that we iterate on our own skills as managers so that we can properly support everyone around individuals, peers, leadership, and the business.

Engineering Management for the Rest of Us is the book I wish every one of my past managers had read. Sarah Drasner has more than 10 years of experience in Engineering Management at all levels, from Lead to VP at Netlify, Microsoft and Trulia/Zillow Group. Join us at the next edition of Bookmarked where Suzan Bond will be joined by Sarah Drasner, who has 10+ years of experience in engineering management at all levels, from Lead to VP, to discuss her newest book ‘Engineering Management for the Rest of Us’. This book provides some organization for collaborating with networks of people, working together towards a common purpose. The last part however didn't feel relevant to engineering management, but rather, her offering on self-help which had the flavor of a glass of water.The book goes from the macro to the micro- with topics ranging everywhere from "feedback" to "scoping down PRs". Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning: Engineering is a field that’s continually evolving, so it’s important to promote a culture of learning within your team. A lot of Engineering Managers and leaders studied for years and years to become the best Engineer they possibly could be… and then they were promoted. Have you ever heard the phrase " when you think you're 90% of the way there, you're really only halfway there.

Sarah has such deep knowledge on this subject and generously lays out plans and thoughtful approaches that you can apply immediately to your teams (and learn from if you're considering management in the first place)! Maybe my expectations from Sarah were to high but I felt some topics were discussed too lightly, almost as stating common sense for people that have a few year of experience working in teams.

Even though the author makes some assumptions about the reader — they work in tech, are engineering managers, and look forward to making themselves better — it never underestimates or overestimates the reader.