Hey everybody,
I have about a decade of work XP in tech with the classic story of entering the industry during the last golden age. I came from a non technical background, did the bare minimum academic work (3yr associate's degree), and was picked up as a Web Dev for a local company when parroting back leetcode easy's could land you a gig. Generally frontend-focused but with "full-stack" titles, I worked at 3 different shops over the past decade. I was quickly promoted from junior to "intermediate" and stayed at mid-level for 3-4 years in the first 2 companies. At my last shop, I got promoted to Senior Dev around 1 year after starting there as an intermediate. Less than 2 years after that, I got internally promoted a second time to EM and managed to hold onto that role for 2ish years longer.
Throughout this journey, especially after attaining Senior, I do not believe I gained enough technical experience to "earn" those promotions. I'm trying to present this case as honest, introspective, and evidence-based - not imposter-syndrome-esque. I simply don't have enough complex features I've led under my belt in these companies that I can speak to with pride. Most of my non-trivial work stands on the shoulders of others and was delivered with significant assistance from fellow devs much more skilled than I.
Every company I was part of was a "mid-size" org with just enough established systems, processes, predictable grunt-ish work, and bureaucracy to let someone like me copy-pasta my way into stability. I attribute my success to advertising the work I did do more than the complexity or the impact that that work yielded. I never minded leading meetings, doing busy work, and running workshops/presentations with people. Those qualities, alongside the likely desire for the company to save 50-100k annually on an external hire is what led to my promotion to EM, IMO. I took it. I like the people management aspects of it and the role resonates with me more than an IC role, honestly.
I'm now facing the same challenge many others in the industry are - layoff earlier this year, and on the hunt since. I'm grateful I've actually been getting the opportunity to interview at multiple places for EM roles, but I'm finding myself unable to speak to real experience in behavioral rounds at the required technical depth. I simply don't have those "projects" I led in my back pocket. I led senior-heavy teams where I played the role of facilitator much more than mentor. It's all been a hodgepodge of collaboration and delegation and shifting priorities that led to abandonware before many features were actually delivered. Any way you slice it, it consistently doesn't seem to be making the cut. I'm not talking about Tier 1/FAANG+ interviews, I'm still aiming for gigs at mid-size no-name outfits.
Right now I'm investing my time in the "technical" interview prep - system design, coding exercises, catching up on recommended reading, and "building something" at home with an aim that it sees the light of day with real data.
My questions are:
- Is there anything more practical I can do to gain or catch up on the expected EM experience outside of finding more work? (eg. Volunteering, OSS, Manager bootcamp)
- (If no to the above) Does it make sense for me to keep trying at EM interviews, or should I be trying to find my way back into dev positions instead?
- (If yes to the above) Does 2+ years of (mostly people-manager) EM experience hobble my chances of finding developer roles now? How do I best present this experience, or close the experience gap?
Many thanks in advance to all who took the time to read the wall of text, and doubly to those offering guidance.