Thibaut LaBarre is an Engineering Lead at AngelList with a background in Natural Language Processing (NLP). During his 7 years at Amazon, he was a Software Development Manager and led an internal startup called Heartbeat, which consolidates millions of data points to provide valuable insights to global product teams.
My journey into engineering management began at Amazon in 2012, working on an internal product for monitoring customer feedback.
What started as a two-engineer project quickly expanded. I soon found myself promoted to Software Engineering Manager, focused on driving the team vision rather than coding.
Four years later, I quit engineering management.
Today, I'll share what led to that decision — and how it helped me find my most rewarding role yet.
Becoming a manager
The promotion from IC to EM was a significant adjustment. After spending most of my time grappling with complex technical problems (often solo), I suddenly had a new set of skills to learn.
Here are my key management responsibilities and takeaways from that time:
Rally people around a mission
When our internal product showed early signs of traction, we had to expand the team quickly. As the manager of a rapidly-growing team, I learned the importance of communicating a clear mission and inspiring passion in others.
Write effective documents
The bulk of my time as a manager was spent writing and rewriting documents, including roadmaps, promotion documents, and emails. I learned to communicate more effectively by replacing ambiguous "weasel words" with concrete metrics and commitments.
Put people before code
A manager's top priority is to help your team grow and make an impact. While I still made some technical contributions, my focus shifted to keeping engineers engaged, technically sharp, and aligned with our mission.
Returning to my IC roots
Being an engineering manager was both rewarding and taxing. I was thrilled to see my team succeed and reach professional goals. But as an introvert who loves to code, I found that managerial tasks drained my battery.
After four years in management, burnout began to set in. I longed for the early stages of building a product and felt the itch to return to a technical role.
So, I took a step "back," joining a five-person startup as a founding software engineer.
My skills were rusty and I wrestled with imposter syndrome, but it was a transformative year. I rediscovered my passion for hands-on technical work and enjoyed the thrill of being at the root of innovation.
I sharpened my technical skills for a year, then switched to a later-stage startup (AngelList), where I now work as an engineering lead.
For me, being an engineering lead is the ideal balance of people and tech. I get to spent 2-3 days per week doing deep engineering work. Other days, I tap into past managerial experience and focus on people-oriented tasks. These include:
• Mentoring and onboarding team members
• Facilitating productive meetings
• Improving team workflows
Ultimately, returning to a builder role wasn't a step back in my career — and trying out management wasn't a mistake. These decisions propelled me forward in finding the best fit for my career.
Navigating your engineering career
Depending on your interests, priorities, and life circumstances, switching roles can be a highly fulfilling choice. That said, before making a drastic change, consider how you might adapt your current position to align with your interests.
For example, aspiring engineering managers might seek opportunities to mentor others.
If you are a manager looking to do more technical work, you might become more involved in hackathons or code reviews. Mentoring engineers can also give you a reason to dive into the latest technology.
Wherever you are in your career journey, pay attention to the parts of software engineering that energize you.
Are you in touch with your interests? Do you seek relevant learning opportunities through mentorship, courses, or special projects?
These learnings will help point you in the right direction.
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