I hired a few excellent Engineering Managers who I’m very happy with last year. I obviously also had to interview a whole bunch more to find them. In this article, I’ll summarize how I would build the best hiring process with my current knowledge after this journey to fill future open positions quickly with excellent candidates. We will move from understanding the role in the first place to building a performant funnel and ultimately closing the candidates we really want.

A while ago I told one of my new Engineering Managers that I expect them to develop a strategy for their team. And oh my, were they confused by this ambiguous ask. I failed to explain this concept and my wish multiple times until we got it right, so this is both a lesson for me and for everyone else watching: As an Engineering Manager, how can you develop a strategy for your team?

Having your manager change is never easy - even in the best case, you will lose someone who was rooting for you and had your best interest in mind, only to start the whole journey anew with a stranger. Re-building a shared context and a trust relationship after a handover is significant work. I collected a few ideas from performing more than 20 handovers to make that process a bit smoother.