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Cover image for Why Devs Break Up with Their Bosses w/ Oliver Wyman's Carolyn Vo
Conor Bronsdon for LinearB

Posted on • Originally published at devinterrupted.com

Why Devs Break Up with Their Bosses w/ Oliver Wyman's Carolyn Vo

Everyone who manages a team would like to think that their employees admire them as individuals and as leaders. That you make an impact on those employees while they work under you and long after you end up moving to new companies and opportunities.

One such engineering leader who has mastered the mix of manager, friend and mentor is Carolyn Vo. A Partner and Head of Engineering at Oliver Wyman, Carolyn is one of engineering’s leading advocates on the benefits of creating a culture of approachability, tinkering and healthy levity.

In fact, in our conversation, Carolyn makes a strong argument that without honing the art of approachable management, not only does productivity suffer, but engineers are consistently looking for the door.

One of our liveliest pods to date, we hope you can absorb Carolyn’s insights and energy no matter where you are on your leadership journey.

Episode Highlights Include:

  • (4:49) Retention isn't important, it's critical
  • (7:26) Why asking engineers "Are you happy?" is a garbage question
  • (12:13) Misconceptions about what makes engineers happy
  • (20:13) Dan & Carolyn's best Easter egg stories
  • (29:52) Flat hierarchy culture
  • (39:38) How to break the ice with your engineers

You’re invited to Interact on October 25th!

Want to know how engineers at Slack and Stripe connect their dev teams’ work to the business bottom line? Or how team leads at Shopify and CircleCI keep elite cycle time while minimizing dev burnout and maximizing retention?

These are just two of the topics we’ll tackle at Interact on October 25th.

A free, virtual, community-driven engineering leadership conference, Interact is a one-day event featuring over 25 of the most respected minds in development, all selected by the thousands of engineering leaders in the Dev Interrupted community.

Register now!

Register now!

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