This article shares hard-earned truths for engineers becoming managers. It covers the shift from teammate to authority, handling stress and sensitive information, mastering feedback and networking, and staying effective amid meetings and politics. It ends with tips on training yourself, managing up, and finding peer support.

This article outlines four clear indicators that your manager has disengaged—lack of specific feedback, being passed over for new projects, disappearing 1:1s, and postponed career talks. It then offers direct steps to re-engage them by asking for expectations and presenting a concrete growth plan.