New Manager Guide Series | Yusuf Aytas
New Manager Guide Series<br>A practical guide to becoming an engineering manager: why people pursue it, what the identity shift feels like, and what first-time managers miss.<br>November 25, 2023·7 min read<br>Leading from Where You Are<br>When we were building Areca, a realtime billing engine for Turk Telekom, we were a small team competing against giants like Amdocs. They had the brand recognition, the scale, an...
November 14, 2023·6 min read<br>The Making of a Leader<br>Leadership, in my eyes, has always been a blend of natural inclination and learned skills. Reflecting on my own path to becoming a leader, I've realized it's not just about inna...
November 13, 2023·11 min read<br>The Path to Leadership<br>Leadership is not a position. It is a journey that changes how you see yourself and the people around you. You begin as an individual contributor, focused on your own craft. Ove...
July 30, 2024·8 min read<br>From Engineer to Manager<br>I often get asked whether someone should transition into management. In the past, this might have been the only viable growth path. However, in most large organizations today, t...
January 13, 2022·4 min read<br>Manager as a Service<br>What would a manager as a service look like? What kind of systems would a manager resemble? How can you describe a manager’s responsibility through various systems? Here’s my ta...
January 9, 2024·5 min read<br>Should Dev Managers Code?<br>As someone who's been navigating the world of software development for a while, I often think about what it really means to be a good development manager. It's a bit like being...
November 16, 2023·5 min read<br>Coding in Leadership<br>When you start coding, you start the adventure. It feels like unlocking a new world of logic and creativity. From programming classes where we tried to solve pyramid programs to...
January 26, 2025·9 min read<br>Traits for EMs<br>Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many managers, and mentored a few. I was fortunate enough to learn from some great bosses. When I think about it, I feel li...
April 16, 2025·14 min read<br>Chasing Real Respect<br>You can fake a lot of things in business. Authority. Expertise. Competence. But you can’t fake certain , like respect. Think about the managers you’ve had in the past. The good...
March 16, 2025·3 min read<br>Management is a Lonely Place<br>Yes, it is. If you’re in it, you already know. It sucks. You can’t talk to your boss about many things because, let’s be honest, they probably don’t have that much time to hear...
September 22, 2024·10 min read<br>Ideal Number of Direct Reports<br>Amazon’s likely comes from a closer look at ratios. Were there too many managers with only 23 direct reports? That’s entirely possible. From my time at AWS, I didn’t see this mu...
February 18, 2025·10 min read<br>Work-Life Balance as a Manager<br>As an IC, you close your laptop at 6 PM, log off, and forget about the work unless you are oncall. As a manager, you check Slack at 10 PM because someone might need you. Your ca...
April 26, 2025·18 min read<br>New Manager Survival Guide<br>Alright, this is gonna be a long one. And not just a onetime thing. I'll keep updating it as I write more about leadership. I’ll try to link everything I’ve written before. This...
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