I think it just takes a different view of management. If you think of management as a sort of permanent, exclusive role like in a traditional large company then yes it's hard to justify.

But in this case a young employee got the chance to lead a small team of three people, and as long as the company keeps an eye on it, management can be learned just like everything else, and if it doesn't work out then that's okay as well.

I think it's much healthier to see management roles as horizontal and as a process that everyone should try out, even early, rather than this status role that you have to climb into. Managers are part of a team and the best way to learn to manage is by doing it. You can have a great impact on the life of a young person if you give them responsibility even if they themselves don't think they can do it.

At a previous company, management pushed for all the Scrum Masters to be level 1 engineers. It felt like I knew nothing and was then being asked to lead my team of 6. While it was intimidating, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow. 90% of my time was still spent coding, but that 10% was spent communicating with other teams and working out any issues that popped up across the 7~ scrum teams. It was a lot of fun and I only stepped down from the role so a young lady on my team (also a level 1) could give it a try.

So here's the key.

It's kind of like in matt ridley's "the rational optimist" - in trade both sides think they're suckering the other side.

Yes, "individual contributors" have little power, sometimes get a little less compensation, and have to do the work.

But I've seen plenty of younger folks put in management positions. Instead of playing around with the technology that brought everyone to the company, they get suckered into bugging people and asking for status. They get to hear people's complaints about inconsequential things. They get to run meetings and juggle deadlines in spreadsheets and shitty enterprise apps. And they can't be always be friends with their tribe.

Back to individual contributors - they get to be less responsible. They get to play with stuff. They are more likely to be able to leave it at work. If they can't do something, they can ask for help. And they can "be normal" with the rest of the team. They can make jokes that arent' taken seriously and even spend time with others outside work.

Now where it could go wrong is power. If all of this becomes a power relationship it might suck. so don't make it that.

The most effective managers I've had were the ones who mainly acted as touchstones of communication and prioritization, instead of authority figures. Maybe thrusting someone under-experienced into the role ensures a certain degree of humility? Sounds like that's what ended up happening here

That is the "happy path" of a being a manager. In practice, problems with reports happen that require either an exceptionally talented (but inexperienced) manager, or some acquired experience to deal with them adequately.

Most new grads are still getting used to how a working environment feels for themselves, and probably can't handle tricky issues that involve other people.

> I cannot think of any situation where someone right out of college would be a good fit for a management role.

In some places it's a good fit to be a bosses nephew.

Tell that to the U.S. Army.

I've known several offices and high-ranked enlisted military members. This is what I was told:

Yes, the most junior of commissioned officers fresh out of academy technically outranks the most senior non-commissioned officer that's been there for 20 years. Also, you can bet that that junior officer will get a very thorough chewing out if s/he ever disrespects the experience, commitment, and knowledge that NCO rank represents.

I was in the US Navy, and had well more than 6 months in before they put me in charge of anyone.

Until that officer is in the jungle. All the sudden the Sergeant runs things real fast.

Apparently the author can’t either. On the other hand, the outcome showed that it doesn’t really matter for this team in particular.

Very likely the guys just did the job and took care of themselves. It is not particularly rare. There are managers who don't contribute anything to actual output, coasting on ground work done by predecessors and being absentee enough to not interfere.

Had he ever faced an actual crisis, change or was stuck in the position for more than brief moment, this would very likely ended differently.

Managers tend to be people who used to be not-quite-good-enough to be engineers.