The Time I Became A Manager - A Senior Principal Engineer's Story

Kun spent a couple years as an engineering manager at Meta before becoming an IC again.

Hi folks, Steve here.

Today we have a special treat. Kun Chen, senior principal at Atlassian, is here to tell us a story about his brief foray into engineering management. If you’re thinking about whether management is the right long-term track for you, this is a must read.

If you’d like more, check out his amazing YouTube channel.

Over to Kun.

Hi everyone, I’m Kun - currently an L8 software engineer working at Atlassian building a set of generative AI products. Most of my career however was at Microsoft and Meta, where I grew from a fresh grad engineer to a senior principal.

Going from entry level to mid, senior and then staff level took me 7 years - lots of fun stories I can share during that journey, but today I’m going to jump to an interesting chapter about the time I became an engineering manager. 

In this article I’ll tell you:

• How I got the opport…