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Discussion on: What is a Team Lead? What is a Tech Lead? Are they the same or different?

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay

I have been both at one company, and still use the "team lead" title on my resume. In place of "tech lead" I put "software developer" since that's what it actually meant there, and I find the ambiguity unhelpful in that particular case.

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cristinaruth profile image
Cristina Ruth

In your "tech lead " role, were there any key differences vs a software developer role?

What do/did you do as a team lead?

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay
  1. None whatsoever.
  2. I coordinated the work of 8-12 "tech leads" (i.e., software developers) on not quite as many projects. Planning, allocations, pitches, managing management, generally making sure people had what they needed to do their jobs. Occasionally I got to do a little technical work on infrastructure or smaller projects.
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cristinaruth profile image
Cristina Ruth • Edited

Interesting how your title was a tech lead yet you didn't exactly lead within a team. 🤔

Number 2 This sounds like what a tech lead would be like for me. Did it include doing performance reviews/hiring as well (HR stuff)?

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Dian Fay

I don't believe any of us "tech leads" took the title too seriously. It's been a long time but I was responsible for performance reviews and there may well have been a few interviews; the company was doing its level best to outsource as much as possible (with predictable results) so growing the team wasn't exactly a priority. I could make personnel recommendations but hiring/firing decisions went to the next manager up.

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Cristina Ruth

Ah, thanks for clarifying. So sounds like it was a combination of a tech lead and team lead (at least based on the definition in my head), since you did some of the technical work but also managed people in an HR way.