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Ask HN: What do .NET Leads do?

5 points by Nurbek-F ↗ HN
I'm a .NET developer with 3+ years of experience and 1 year as a lead in a startup with up to 3 people in a team. I'll be interviewing for a .NET Lead position soon. I feel inexperienced, considering that I've never worked in a large organization with defined project management methodologies(Agile), in a remote international team. I appreciate any tips and materials to learn from.

6 comments

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mikece
The terms "lead developer", "architect", and "software dev manager (SDM)" pretty much change from one place to another. I've been in shops where leads are merely the person with tenure who has been given the title to justify paying them more (ditto architect); I've seen shops where the lead is the first among equals; I've seen shops where they are 40% developer 60% going to meetings/doing HR things; I was a technical lead in a shop where leads were officially managers under labor law (and we functioned more like SDMs who still did some coding).

The one thing that should be universal is that senior/lead developers should be able to mentor junior devs and train them up. If you're at that point then great. Beyond that just have a candid discussion with the prospective employer and have them define what a Lead is to them and what they should be doing. Just don't go in with one idea and get upset that your concept of what a Lead is doesn't match the employer's idea because you didn't ask enough questions during the interview process.

Nurbek-F
Noted, thanks! Should I prepare my technical skills more or management/behavioural? I know it varies shop to shop, but still... The position's title says ".NET Lead with AWS experience". What strategy to follow when collaborating with devs, keep distance and hierarchy or sam as in a startup would work fine (casual and open)
mikece
Just be candid in your conversations with them. Tell them that you're relatively low-yeared in industry but offset that by emphasizing the mentoring you've done your current/previous jobs. I've had employers change the job description based on who they meet in interviews in order to justify bringing me in.

Collaboration: you should know what your coworkers are doing (more or less). Easy "I can prove I did this" mentoring can be something like a Lunch & Learn (teaching about advanced topics in C# or perhaps language features that would benefit the company if they would adopt it). The trendy term "thought leader" is what a mentor does but in a one-to-many instead of one-on-one.

Nurbek-F
This is very insightful! Appreciate your time!
sharemywin
I think definitely be prepared to discuss why you were successful at your last lead position.

Make sure you can speak about AWS at a high level, but might get tech'd for details.

Nurbek-F
Thank you, will keep in mind