When You and Your Senior Engineer Disagree: How to Lead Without Pretending You're Always Right
Your senior engineer says your approach won't work. You think it will. Who's right? How do you lead when the person with deeper expertise disagrees with your technical decision? Here's how to navigate disagreements without damaging relationships, pretending to know more than you do, or undermining your authority.
Inheriting Someone Else's Network: What to Fix, What to Leave Alone, and How Not to Destroy Your Credibility
You just got promoted or changed jobs. Now you're managing a network you didn't design, with decisions you don't agree with, and configurations that make you cringe. Do you change everything? Leave it alone? How do you prove yourself without breaking things or alienating the people who built it? Here's what actually works when inheriting someone else's infrastructure.
Managing Your Team Through a Major Outage: The Leadership Test Nobody Prepares You For
Major outages aren't a matter of if, but when. And when they happen, your job as a manager isn't just technical - it's keeping your team functioning under pressure, communicating to leadership, and ensuring you learn without creating a blame culture. Here's what actually matters when everything is on fire.
Job Hopping Every 2-3 Years: Career Strategy or Red Flag?
Should network engineers change jobs every 2-3 years for salary growth, or does loyalty to one company build deeper expertise? From both the engineer's and manager's perspective - the real data on compensation, the trade-offs nobody talks about, and how to think strategically about your career trajectory.
Both Sides of the Desk: Asking for a Raise (The Engineer’s Perspective)
Part 3 of the "Both Sides of the Desk" series tackles one of the most uncomfortable conversations in your career: asking for a raise. From the engineer's perspective, how to know if you deserve one, when to ask, how to build your case, and what to do when the answer is no.
Technical Debt: What Engineers Wish Managers Understood
Technical debt isn't just a buzzword engineers use to avoid new projects. It's real, it compounds like financial debt, and ignoring it eventually breaks your infrastructure. Here's what engineers wish managers understood about technical debt - and what managers need to know about prioritizing, communicating upward, and balancing debt paydown with feature delivery.
Both Sides of the Desk: Burnout (The Engineer's Perspective)
The first in a new series examining critical issues from both engineer and manager perspectives. This post explores burnout from the network engineer's viewpoint - the relentless pursuit of the next certification, work overload, organizational chaos, and the exhausting disconnect between technical reality and management expectations.
What I Look for When Hiring Network Engineers: Beyond the Resume
A hiring manager's honest perspective on what really matters when evaluating network engineering candidates - from resume screening to technical validation. Learn how to stand out in the hiring process and avoid the common disconnect between interview performance and actual technical capability.
5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Network Engineering Manager
Real talk from a new network engineering manager about the unexpected challenges, hard lessons, and things nobody tells you before you take on your first management role. If you're considering management or just started, these insights might save you some painful learning experiences.
AI for Network Managers: Leading Teams in the Age of Intelligent Automation
As AI tools become mainstream, network managers must navigate the opportunities and challenges of integrating artificial intelligence into their teams' workflows. This guide explores practical AI applications for network engineering teams, implementation strategies, and how to address concerns while maximizing benefits.
Leading Remote Network Engineering Teams: Why Location Shouldn't Matter in 2025
As businesses push for return-to-office mandates, network engineering remains one of the most location-independent technical disciplines. This post explores why network engineers can work effectively from anywhere, how to lead distributed technical teams, and why smart organizations are embracing remote-first approaches for technical talent.
Building High-Performing Network Engineering Teams: Beyond Technical Skills
Creating a high-performing network engineering team requires more than hiring skilled technicians. This comprehensive guide covers hiring strategies, team dynamics, skill development, and the cultural elements that separate good network teams from exceptional ones
The Technical Manager's Dilemma: Staying Current While Leading People
The struggle is real for technical managers trying to maintain their technical edge while effectively leading people. This post explores why trying to be both the top technical expert and the manager usually leads to failure at both, and provides practical strategies for finding the right balance.
From Network Engineer to Network Engineering Manager: A First-Timer's Guide
Making the leap from individual contributor to manager is both exciting and nerve-wracking. Here's what to expect in your first management role, essential traits for success, common pitfalls to avoid, and practical advice for leading a network engineering team while maintaining your technical credibility.