100% FREE Resources to Start and Grow Your Engineering Management Career

Have you been dreaming of starting your mangement career as a tech lead or an engineering manager? Is your brain overflowing with questions as well as ideas on how you'd run your team? No matter how many lines of code you have written, you feel like there is more you could do and have more impact. Oh, I can relate.

We spend most of our lives working, and I wanted to wake up every day knowing I was doing work that I enjoy and making a positive impact to those around me.

But I know it's not an easy decision. It's not easy to take the leap. After many years of self-doubt, I realised that I had to get out of my comfort zone and say yes. To management path. I am not going to lie. It wasn't always fun. It didn't always feel good. But having tools and resources helped me greatly in my journey.

Fast forward 15 years… 

My name is Isabel Nyo, and I am a senior engineering leader based in Sydney, Australia. I am passionate about sharing my knowledge and helping others in their management careers.

The path to management hasn’t been easy. Or fast. After one year stint as a manager, I went back to an individual contributor role and stayed in my the familiar lane as a software engineer.

Therefore, when I decided to make the leap again, I was determined and well-prepared. And that's what I want for you.

Without any further ado, here are 100% FREE resources to start and grow your engineering management career!

  • 10 books to read for engineering managers
  • 10 podcasts to listen for engineering managers
  • 5 articles on an engineering manager role
  • 3 tips on how to be an effective engineering manager
  • 2 resources on levelling up as an engineering manager
  • 10 talks and videos for engineering managers
  • 5 personal stories of engineering managers
  • 5 engineering managers to follow on Twitter

This page can also be viewed on Notion at https://www.notion.so/Engineering-Management-Resources-e959165b52ce42309fdfe18730cc3100

10 books to read for engineering managers

Not all of them are mangement or software development books, some are about strategic thinking, some about human nature and some about operating a business. They are all very important for an engineering manager to read and understand the concepts in order to be a well-rounded and effective engineering manager.

  1. The Manager's Path by Camille Fournier
  2. The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
  3. Managing Humans by Michael Lopp
  4. The Engineering Manager’s How-to Guide by Isabel Nyo
  5. Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr
  6. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by James Collins
  7. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  8. Thinking Fast & Slow  by Daniel Kahneman
  9. Start With Why  by  Simon Sinek
  10. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.”

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by James Collins

10 podcasts to listen for engineering managers

  1. The Modern CTO
  2. Managers Tools
  3. Coaching for Leaders
  4. The Changelog
  5. HBR IdeaCast
  6. The Digital Project Manager Podcast
  7. Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders
  8. The Product Podcast
  9. Master of scale
  10. WorkLife with Adam Grant

5 articles on an engineering manager role

The Engineering Manager 101: Who are they and what do they do?
Making the Transition from Software Engineer to Software Engineering Manager
What you give up when moving into engineering management
The Engineer/Manager Pendulum
10 Important Skills That Engineering Managers at Tech Companies Need

3 tips on how to be an effective engineering manager

How To Automate Your Job As An Engineering Manager
6 Ways to Manage Your Software Engineering Team More Effectively
Improving Cross-functional Relationships

2 resources on levelling up as an engineering manager

Resources for Engineering Directors
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – Questions and Answers

10 talks and videos for engineering managers

The Path to Becoming a Senior Engineering Manager
Going from Engineering Manager to Director
KPIs Every Engineering Leader Should Track
Spotify’s transition from Chapter Leads into Engineering Managers
Managing Humans: Michael Lopp in conversation
The role of being technical in technical leadership
Building High Performance Teams at Twitter
Principles: Life and Work
Developing a Growth Mindset
Thinking, Fast and Slow
How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace

5 personal stories of engineering managers

Catching up with Engineering Manager Lin Q, Meta (Facebook)
Interview with Allison McMillan, Engineering Manager, GitHub
Learnings from my first 90 days as an engineering manager
Moving from Engineering Manager to IC
Early learnings from an engineering manager on a fully remote team

5 engineering managers to follow on Twitter

  1. Will Larson @Lethain
  2. Charity Majors @mipsytipsy
  3. Jean Hsu Jean Hsu
  4. Pat Kua @patkua
  5. Katie Wilde @gokatiewilde