Brian Mazzaferri, Global Head of Solutions Consulting at Rippling

For a lot of SEs, management looks like the obvious next step. After all, it's what progression is meant to look like. But it isn't a rung on the same ladder. It's a different job, with almost the opposite rewards. As an SE, you're the one delivering the demo and getting the credit. As a leader, your job is to put your team in the spotlight instead. You stop solving problems and start balancing tensions, most of which don't have a clean answer. Plenty of people rush into it, myself included, without really knowing what they're signing up for. My latest guest on Pre-Sales Pathways knows exactly what that shift involves. Brian Mazzaferri went from senior manager to VP of Solutions Consulting at Rippling in a little over two years, and he's honest about what changes at each step. We get into: - why you should interview for a leadership role before you feel ready - how a leader's real job is managing the things that don't have a clean answer - why this career is a jungle gym, not a ladder, and moving back to IC is a great path too If you're weighing up whether management is your next move, this is your chance to hear what it's really like before you commit.