Becoming an engineering manager is not just about climbing the ladder. It is a complete shift in responsibility. You are no longer measured by the code you write or the tasks you complete. Now you are accountable for how the entire team performs. You can delegate work, but you are still responsible for results. If no one owns a problem, you do. That is not an extra detail, that is the job.
Engineering management is one of those roles that looks simple on paper but feels very different once you're in it. At its core, it's about enabling others rather than measuring yourself only by your own output. You're not just writing code or solving problems directly anymore. Instead, you're creating the right environment for your team to do their best work, keeping them aligned, and helping them grow.
The more responsibility you take on, the less your job is about your own output. For engineers who step into management, this can feel unnatural. You're used to solving problems directly, writing code, and moving fast. You may even know the exact way to solve something, and it can feel frustrating to slow down long enough to explain it to someone else. But that's the shift.
