Engineering Manager Requirements 6

[BandH]

Hi all - would like your comments on the following. What are your thoughts on the requirements for an Engineering Manager in a small engineering company. In our case, the EM will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the design office, as well as responsibility for engineering issues.

The interview is in 2 weeks

Regards,

Bandh

 

[plasgears]

I was a PE in the auto industry. I agree that a PE or masters is a good starting point for an engineering manager.

Many years ago when I was a limo converter for Cadillac, I was asked whether I had a PE. The significance is that they accepted implicitly the calculations of a PE engineer. In this case it was elastic-plastic calculations of side crash resistance of a sandwich beam installed in the stretch portion.

Limo got bad press and government intervention after a couple of fatals involving wedding parties in limos. One limo was cut in half by a dragster; three killed.

 

[ScottyUK]

Tunalover,

I find the awful caricature of an engineering manager you have portrayed to be scarily familiar. Once one or two establish themselves within a company they appoint more of their own kind and spread like a cancer though the organisation.

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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[epoisses]

Depending on the color of your sunglasses, you might as well read it as follows:

The engineering manager:

A. Knows he needs the support of the people above him to run his department and makes sure he has it.
B. Buys into any good ideas developed within his department and supports them vs senior management,
C. Hires those with the necessary skills and knowledge but unfortunately his training budget is not unlimited.
D. Cares about the short-term. Cares about his own perforance reviews. Cares about long-term too but does not necessarily discuss that with everyone in his department.
E. Knows that in order to sell his plans, they do not only have to be good, but look good as well.
F. Does not necessarily agree with everyone in his department having an opinion on "the long view" especially if they don't care to make a good impression.
G. Tends to promote people with whom he can work effectively and who contributed to the department he is heading.

It all depends on your interpretation. Sarcasm and cynism is easy. Running an engineering dept is not.
(I am not an engineering mgr).

 

[ScottyUK]

epoisses,

Absolutely agree with your A-G. There is a fine line between following yours, or following tunalover's A-G, and many get it wrong through inexperience, ineptitude, etc. Much of management is about how others percieve you: if a manager is perceived as fitting tunalover's description, then is that person really an effective manager? I suggest not.

A manager needs support from both sides - disgruntled subordinates will never perform as well as content ones, however hard they are pushed, and a manager without support from above will always struggle to perform his role. It is a tricky balance to strike - too many inexperienced managers forget that a good working relationship is based on trust and mutual respect with those above and below on the organisation tree. Often inexperience leads to a dictatorial attitude to subordinates, and a meek and cowed attitude toward superiors. Maybe it is driven by their own insecurity and lack of confidence. Perhaps the root of the problem is that people are being pushed into management too early?


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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[zdas04]

Since University I've worked for accountants, Landmen, Business Analysts, and a half dozen flavors of engineer.

I think that the assertions above that an Engineering Manager must be an experienced Engineer are just nonsense. The best boss I ever had was an experienced engineer, but she didn't have nearly the engineering experience as the worst boss I ever had. The best boss I ever had is ending her career (after a stint as an on-campus recruiting manager) as an HR rep, and I will give long odds that she is superb at that as well. I have nearly zero respect for HR, but if the function must exist I'd like to see people with integrity in the role.

I think of a boss as a Tom Terrific hat (cartoon from the 1950's, the hat is a funnel). If you turn it with the small side up, most of the raining BS is deflected. If you turn it with the small side down then it becomes a BS concentrator and the underlings get too much crap and the upper management hears too much nonsense.

As I was reading this thread I was trying think of the characteristics of good and bad bosses that I've had or worked closely with and the single characteristic that ties both groups firmly into their grouping is Personal Integrity. A good boss will believe what they are saying (or will say nothing) and will be honest about what they are passing up or down. A bad boss will try to tell everyone what: (a) makes the boss seem to look good; and (b) what the boss perceives the person wants to hear.

A good boss also must be a politician, must be decisive, and must be able to balance a need for deliberation against a need for "good enough" answers, but if neither staff nor top management can believe them they won't be effective.

I've never had a boss that could do my job and I've rarely had a subordinate whose job I could easily step into. If the Engineering Manager is worth their salt then their staff will do technical presentations, not them so where is the overwhelming need for engineering experience?

David