As an engineering manager you almost always have someone in your company to turn to for
advice: a peer on another team your manager or even the head of engineering. But who do you
turn to if you're the head of engineering? Engineering executives have a challenging learning
curve and many folks excitedly start their first executive role only to leave frustrated
within the first 18 months. In this book author Will Larson shows you ways to obtain your
first executive job and quickly ramp up to meet the challenges you may not have encountered in
non-executive roles: measuring engineering for both engineers and the CEO company-scoped
headcount planning communicating successfully across a growing organization and figuring out
what people actually mean when they keep asking for a "technology strategy." This book explains
how to: Get an engineering executive job negotiate the contract and onboard at your new
company Run an engineering planning process and communicate effectively with the organization
Direct the core meetings necessary to operate an effective engineering organization Hire
onboard and run performance management Manage yourself and remain effective through many
challenges Leave the job when the time is right Will Larson was the chief technology officer at
Calm and the author of An Elegant Puzzle and Staff Engineer . He's also a prolific writer on
his blog Irrational Exuberance .
