Engineering Management for the Rest of Us cover art

Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

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Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

By: Sarah Drasner
Narrated by: Phil Hawksworth
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About this listen

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. It can be very tough for those of us who didn't go into Engineering with the distinct concept that we would become managers, but still want to do our best to support our teams.

I wrote this book because there's so much no one told me about management that I wished I would have known. There's a lot to be purposeful about that many of us learn on the job, and worse: learn on people. This book provides some organization for collaborating with networks of people, working together towards a common purpose.

There seem to be millions of articles and "how to"s on programming and only a handful of resources on Engineering Management—why? It's very tough to talk about something that involves people processes. People are non-deterministic. Working relationships are nuanced, communication is linked with individual values, motivations, power dynamics, and skills. People also have a range of experiences and emotions that are not consistent day-to-day. Hopefully, in the happiest, most productive sense.

I'm sharing what I've learned—not so that you follow my concepts exactly, but rather so that you can be thoughtful about your own leadership and needs. The book goes from the macro to the micro—with topics ranging everywhere from "feedback" to "scoping down PRs".

Though the book is meant to address people in management, individual contributors are welcome to listen to the book as well—perhaps you need to manage up and need some tools to help guide the conversation, perhaps you just want a peek at other concerns within the business—everyone is invited to the conversation.

©2022 Skill Recordings Inc (P)2024 Sarah Drasner
Management & Leadership Programming & Software Development Project Management Software Development Management

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All stars
Most relevant  
At 1:38:40, the narrator’s voice is duplicated for 1-2 seconds (i.e. poor audio mixing).
Also, somewhere during the first hour (forget the exact position), the sound cuts out for 2-3 seconds and it’s noticeable you missed some dialogue.

Regarding the story, I’ve listened to a few other engineering management books so I haven’t heard anything new so far, but the narrator’s voice is measy to listen to, so I will continue for another while.

2:09:20 the sound cuts out and moves to a new subsection mid sentence.

Audio issues, will update as I progress further

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Despite some annoying sound issues (as pointed out by the other reviewer), the book raises some fair points. However, the author's repeated use of millennial buzzwords like microaggressions and unconscious bias can be frustrating and somewhat ironic. The author, Sarah, a woman, I assume, even criticises "white male" perspectives at one point, which undermines some otherwise relatable ideas.

Fair points tarnished by sexism + sound issues

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The editing is terrible. The audio has been totally messed up. Some chapters overlap in audio and it skips sections too - ending the chapter mid sentence.

Audio cuts out and skips sections

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This is a great book I think all managers would benefit from reading. It's a shame the recording has some noticeable skips, repeated lines and reduced volume in places. I'd request my money back but that seems unfair on the author who has done an excellent job!

Great book, poor audio with missing parts!

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