dustinl

I've lived here for 5 years and love it. So many neighborhoods with their own charm, food, culture, etc. So much to do, people are open-minded, weather is great. I just don't go to Market St unless I'm going to work, and I avoid the bro-culture by hanging out in different neighborhoods. I would definitely not describe this place as "soul-less".

I moved from engineer to manager around 3 years ago at an SF based "unicorn" and moved up the ranks into senior management. I tend to break it down into three areas: managing up, down, and across. Up: understand your audience and learn to connect your work to the broader picture/business value without all of the engineering detail. Across: manage your capacity (resources on your team), learn how to say "no" with justification, get better at "business" and speaking to non-technical folks, be good at cross functional communication. Down: servant leadership, align engineers interests with their work at the company, help them grow their careers, be firm in ensuring everyone is treated fairly, and stay technical so you can align on the technical direction from others.