
Ask HN: VPE at Small Company or Eng Manager at Big One? - bigorlittle
I&#x27;m being considered for a variety of roles.<p>VP Engineering at small, stable tech companies or Engineering Manager at large &#x2F; well known tech companies.  I&#x27;d manage 10-15 engineers in either case.<p>Pay is similar between the roles.<p>Which is better? What does the tradeoff look like?
======
tyingq
Do you get more joy out of being the smartest person in the room (mentoring,
teaching, guiding etc), or from learning, being challenged, etc?

~~~
bigorlittle
I guess I like both, but I don't want to stagnate.

~~~
tyingq
YMMV, or course, but the bigco position is probably more about protecting your
team from politics and learning what they need...training, political
representation, translating business requirements, and so forth. There's
probably already a tech lead in place for the "tech stuff".

The small company position is probably more about technical mentoring,
teaching, building a team, being the defacto chief architect, replacing
yourself and current role as the company grows.

