From engineer to engineering manager: A qualitative study of experiences, challenges, and individual transitions for engineering managers in aerospace companies

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and challenges faced by engineers as they moved to the position of engineering manager. Little research-based information was available to understand the challenges faced in this transition. Information was collected via qualitative interviews in the tradition of phenomenology. The phenomenon explored was the transition of engineers moving into engineering management with an emphasis on common experiences and challenges. Three interviews were conducted with five engineering managers. Each interview lasted approximately 75 minutes and was recorded and transcribed. The managers worked for aerospace companies on Long Island New York. Three research questions provided the framework for analyzing and presenting the results. Study findings included 45 experiences identified by the managers. The experiences were grouped into 9 themes. The experiences and themes were presented to the managers, who validated them and ranked the themes according to difficulty. Three themes were considered the most difficult aspects of the transition. These aspects were: (1) So much going on: The engineering manager role involves balancing many more responsibilities, tasks and priorities than the engineering role; (2) Relationship changes: Personal relationships, interaction dynamics and engineer perceptions of you have changed; and (3) Delegation: The challenge of leaving the hands on technical behind and learning to work through others. The remaining themes, while not identified as the most challenging, were still considered difficult by some or all of the managers.