In general the companies that don't both A) pay better and B) are located in tech hubs / do remote work. So, go for more money, prefer remote or in a tech hub.
You can also ask during interview about the coding experience of the manager you will report to. Usually they are up front about it. If you turn them down, do us all a favour and let the company know that was why (more coding managers and fewer MBAs please!).
I'm not gonna lie, it's not going to be possible for everybody to avoid this kind of company, especially in the more backwater places. I left Singapore because I basically found one company that didn't obviously follow that pattern. They frustrated me too for other reasons so I didn't take their offer.
I think that this is one of the most underrated reasons for the formation of technology hubs and one reason why Singapore, in spite of really trying to become a "silicon valley of asia" (VC money: check, money pumped into education: check, huge startup grants: check) just won't, and will bleed rather than attract talent.
> You can also ask during interview about the coding experience of the manager you will report to.
Yes, for tech leadership. No for people management.
Simply put, too many people in people management positions who were "technical" x years ago.
This leads to them making technical decisions that their team should be making, which they absolutely should not be doing.
>Yes, for tech leadership. No for people management.
A good tech leader can handle people management too. A good "people management" leader can't handle tech. You want both.
>Simply put, too many people in people management positions who were "technical" x years ago. This leads to them making technical decisions that their team should be making, which they absolutely should not be doing.
Good tech managers will trust the judgement of their team and know when to give them agency and when to overrule them (there are sometimes legit reasons to do it).
Happy productive teams are teams which have a tech lead making tech choices (& involving team to some extent), with the people management side taken care of by a (dedicated) people manager who can cut across multiple teams ( & also taking care of the people management of the tech lead)
