Lights on Humans: Being a Manager After the Technical Track
About this session
Moving from engineer to manager can feel like stepping into a whole new job — one that no one fully prepares you for. Suddenly, your days look different, your success is measured in new ways, and the skills that made you great as an engineer aren’t always the ones you need most as a manager.
In this session, we’ll talk about what really changes when you go from engineer to manager, the surprises most people don’t expect, and how to navigate those first months with more confidence.
No prep needed, no pressure to talk. Join to listen, learn, or ask questions if you want.
About Lights on Humans Series
So many conversations about work, burnout, leadership, or career growth happen online but often feel one-way. People create, and posts. Others consume, "like" or "comment". And yet, it’s rare to actually have spaces to talk about these things in real time, human to human.
That’s why Lights on Humans isn’t a podcast or a polished talk. It’s a free, low-key monthly gathering where we share experiences, explore questions to match our realities.
We don’t mind if five people join or fifty as long as there is a conversation. Sometimes I’ll bring a guest to share their perspective. Sometimes it’s just me and whoever shows up.
Either way, the goal is simple: real conversations about the messy, human side of tech life. The parts we don’t always talk about but all live through.
Format:
15 min → A story or insight to start the conversation
40 min → Q&A or quiet listening
5 min → Wrap-up + next month’s theme
Come as you are.
About Busra
I’m Busra — a software engineer turned coach and founder of Humans in Systems.
Over more than a decade in tech, I’ve worked at companies like Datadog, where I led incident management programs across the entire company and managed engineering teams; Trivago and Ericsson, where I built reliable systems at scale.
Along the way, I’ve seen the realities of burnout, the complexity of leadership transitions, and what it takes to build engineering cultures rooted in trust especially in high-stakes environments.
What I’ve learned is that people thrive when they feel safe, connected, and empowered to take charge of their work and growth. This series exists to create those spaces for reflection, learning, and real conversation.