Management is not engineering; though self-explanatory, this is the root of many issues plaguing tech companies in the hiring process. While career progression suggests that seasoned engineers be considered for open management positions, the distinction between management and contribution roles must be clearly defined, understood, and adhered to company-wide. After all, just like some managers may not make for successful engineers, successful engineers do not necessarily make for good managers.

Engineering managers often spearhead the most critical parts of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Outside of their work as contributors and leaders, managers oftentimes dictate the experience had by their team members. From aligning employees with the company vision to supporting and empowering them to grow on their own, engineering managers have considerable influence over both the direction of their projects and their team members’ careers.

Curating a solid engineering leadership team can be tricky for many reasons, most stemming from the beginning of the hiring process. To better understand how to appropriately hire for the critical engineering manager role, let’s look at how AirBnb interviews and chooses the best candidate for the job.

Where to Look

The first decision to make when hiring for a newly available position can often set the tone for the entire new-hire process. For most mid to large-sized companies, the first question is: look internally, or hire externally?

For already-established teams, it makes sense to first gauge internal interest among current employees for the new manager position. While keeping in mind that not all engineers will be successful managers, talk to the team about what they’d like to see in their new leader and cross-reference these qualities with any potential internal candidates.

Many times, hiring new engineering managers internally benefits the company more than hiring a more experienced external candidate. Internal candidates cut down onboarding time and have in many cases already developed a rapport with their peers.

Here are some skills to look for when choosing internal candidates to interview for an open Engineering Manager position:

• Collaboration
• Ownership
• Leadership
• Empathy
• Communication

While preference should always be given to internal candidates, in the situation where no current employee fits the role’s requirements, defer to the recruiting team to find other suitable applicants. Outside of the same managerial qualities expected of internal candidates, look for any relevant domain experience that would potentially reduce filing knowledge gaps during onboarding.

The Interview Process

After a suitable pool of candidates is compiled by HR/recruiting (usually by a quick phone and resume screen), it’s time to begin the meat of the interview process. AirBnb breaks up the interview into three stages: a behavioral, a technical, and an on-site.

Behavioral Interview

AirBnb starts with a managerial interview before going technical; after all, the majority of the role’s responsibilities are rooted in soft skills. During the behavioral/managerial interview, you and your team should be looking for answers to the following questions:

• How does the candidate view the intersection between people, products, and technology?
• How would the candidate conduct 1:1s?
• How does the candidate handle giving and receiving feedback?
• How would the candidate address poor performance?
• What skills does the candidate value in their team members?
• How would this candidate go about hiring a new member for their team?
• How does the candidate set up projects for success?
• How does the candidate balance feature development with technical debt?
• How does the candidate design and plan for failure?
• How does the candidate view and promote cross-functionality in a team?
• How would the candidate help their subordinate’s career planning and development?

The goal of the behavioral interview is to gauge the candidate’s managerial style and ensure that it is compatible both with the team and the company. By the end of this interview, the candidate’s leadership and communication skills should be evident, and it should be clear that their motivations and values align with the company. Should this not be the case, it’s best for both parties to terminate the interview process here. After all, an Engineering Manager is a manager first and an engineer second.

Technical Interview

The nature of the technical interview is entirely dependent upon the specific responsibilities of the Engineering Manager from company to company. In organizations where the Engineering Manager has a hands-on role in development and deployment, it may be appropriate for a multi-part technical interview to take place.

Technical interviews exist to gauge the candidate’s problem-solving process and general domain knowledge at a high level. Companies that only focus on the ability of an engineer to solve a problem top to bottom in an hour are not getting an accurate read on their candidate’s technical skills. Instead of the traditional coding exercises used to hire engineers, it’s recommended to use the following types of technical interviews when hiring engineering managers:

• System Design question: These questions require a high-level understanding of large-scale system design. Examples include designing Dropbox, designing a messenger app, etc.
• Architecture/management questions: These questions will allow the interviewer to understand the opinions and processes the candidate may bring to the role. Examples include: How do you define clean code? What are best development practices and how might they be maintained? How can you manage tech debt?
• Short, Algorithmic Coding Questions: Some companies still use basic coding questions for managerial positions to ensure the candidate will be proficient in algorithms for at least one programming language. The most common coding questions asked by Airbnb are around graphs, trees, arrays, strings, and dynamic programming.

On-Site Interview

Any notes from the behavioral and technical interviews should be paired with the last observations made during an on-site interview. The point of bringing a candidate “on-site” (which is now often done virtually) is to gauge how the candidate would interact with their team. It’s very important for any peers who would regularly interact with this new hire to meet them before they are brought on the team. These employees’ opinions should be considered along with other interview results.

While the candidate has their last round, “on-site” interview, the hiring team should be looking for the answers to the following questions:

• Our team members looking forward to looking with this new manager?
• Do the team members have any concerns about bringing on the new manager? If so, what are they?
• What is the candidate’s experience in managing teams like this?
• How does the candidate fit into a cross-functional company vision?

The Decision

After interviewing the candidate pool, the remaining candidates should be compared and contrasted among the hiring team. If your new Engineering Manager is not an obvious choice, it may be beneficial for each stakeholder to make a pro/con list for each of the candidates.

In some cases, such as in the case of hiring/promoting from within, it may not always be appropriate to allow the team members to have a stake in hiring their new manager. That said, team members should still meet with each candidate during the hiring process and feel included in the decision. AirBnb makes sure to include and empower the team to be a part of hiring their own manager will oftentimes boost morale and encourage better team dynamics.

Conclusion

Airbnb’s hiring process for new Engineering Managers is not revolutionary, but the reason it works so well is that it is focused on the individual team’s needs. Each team, engineer, and manager have different priorities, values, methodologies, and beliefs. What is essential is that they are diverse yet cohesive– and to feel comfortable in striking this balance, the interview process must be thorough. Airbnb is directly tactful and individualized in their interview process by circumventing any unnecessary coding interviews or superfluous behavioral questions. This results in truly finding the best candidate for each position, and perhaps is a pillar of their corporate success.