The standard career story says you climb one ladder: engineer, senior engineer, then either keep coding forever or become a manager and stop. Charity Majors blew that up with one essay. Her argument: the best technical leaders swing back and forth between engineering and management, like a pendulum, rather than picking a track and climbing it forever.
Key Takeaways
- Charity Majors' engineer/manager pendulum: the best leaders oscillate between building and managing (Charity Majors).
- A tech lead leads by landing a project (task-first); a manager leads people (people-first) (Charity Majors).
- You can only get better at one at a time, because they demand opposite modes of work (Charity Majors).
- The best tech leads have usually done time managing, and vice versa.
The Pendulum
In her 2017 essay "The Engineer/Manager Pendulum," Charity Majors challenged the idea that engineering and management are two separate ladders you pick between (Charity Majors). Her observation, from watching the best technical leaders, is that they move back and forth: a few years managing, then back to hands-on engineering, then maybe back to management. Each swing makes them better at the other. Managing teaches you how work actually gets done through people; engineering keeps your technical judgment sharp and credible.
The key constraint she names: you can only really improve at one of these at a time. They demand opposite things. Good engineering needs long, uninterrupted focus, blocking out the world to solve hard problems. Good management needs the opposite, being available, interruptible, even interrupt-driven, because your job is your people. Trying to do both deeply at once means doing neither well.
Tech Lead Is Not Manager
The pendulum also clarifies a role people constantly confuse. A tech lead and an engineering manager are different jobs (Charity Majors). A manager's first responsibility is the humans: growing them, unblocking them, handling the people problems. A tech lead's first responsibility is landing the project: they're an engineer in charge of getting a specific thing shipped, coordinating the technical work. Both are leadership, but their priorities differ, and pretending they're the same sets people up to fail, which is part of why promoting your best engineer to manager so often goes wrong.
| Tech Lead | Engineering Manager | |
|---|---|---|
| First priority | Landing the project | Growing the people |
| Mode of work | Still building, focused | Available, interruptible |
| Measures | Did the thing ship? | Is the team healthy and effective? |
Why This Reframes Careers
The pendulum is freeing, because it removes the false, high-stakes fork. You don't have to decide once and forever whether you're an engineer or a manager. You choose one for now, do it well, and can swing to the other later, richer for the round trip. It also explains why the best tech leads are often the ones who've managed: they know how to get things done through communication and coordination, well beyond writing code. And the best managers are often the ones who've recently engineered: they still understand the work and command real technical respect.
A Concrete Version
A strong senior engineer is told the only way up is management, so they take the job and spend two years slowly losing the technical edge that made them valuable, while never quite loving the people-management part. In a pendulum culture, they'd instead do a two-year management rotation, learn how the org really works, then swing back to a staff-engineer role, now far more effective because they understand both sides. Same person, and the difference is whether the org treats the two as a one-way door or a pendulum.
The Honest Counterpoint
The pendulum is easier to admire than to run, and Majors herself notes the institutional support for it barely exists. Most companies still have rigid ladders, swinging from manager back to engineer reads as a "demotion" on paper, and someone has to hold a team while you swing. It works best at companies large enough to absorb the moves and enlightened enough to not treat a return to engineering as failure. For many people it stays an individual act of courage rather than a supported path. The idea is right; the org design to enable it is still catching up.
What This Means for Teams
The pendulum reframes how to think about technical leadership and career growth, and it pairs with the reality that promoting an engineer to manager is a genuine role change rather than a reward, and that manager quality drives team outcomes. Understanding the difference between a tech lead and a manager, and not forcing everyone onto the management track, keeps your best engineers engaged instead of pushed into a job they don't want. See available engineers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the engineer/manager pendulum?
Charity Majors' idea that the best technical leaders swing back and forth between hands-on engineering and management over their careers, rather than picking one track and climbing it forever. Each swing improves the other.
What's the difference between a tech lead and an engineering manager?
A tech lead's first priority is landing a project, they're an engineer coordinating the technical work. A manager's first priority is the people: growing, unblocking, and supporting them. Both lead, but their priorities differ.
Can you be a great engineer and manager at the same time?
Majors argues no, because they demand opposite modes. Engineering needs uninterrupted focus; management needs constant availability. You can improve at one at a time, which is why the pendulum works better than doing both at once.
Why does this matter for careers?
It removes the false, permanent choice between coding and managing. You pick one for now and can swing back later, and the round trip makes you better at both. It also stops companies from forcing every strong engineer into management.
The Bottom Line
Engineering and management work best as a pendulum the best technical leaders swing across over a career, rather than two ladders you choose between once. You can only get better at one at a time, because they demand opposite ways of working. Treat the two as a round trip, keep the tech-lead and manager roles distinct, and you keep your best people growing instead of forced into a job they never wanted.
Roberto Espinoza is CEO of Ruzora, which helps US startups hire pre-vetted senior LATAM engineers in 72 hours. See available engineers.
