4/12    our company decided to hire a manager for my group (programmers) and
        move my current boss to another group instead. so tomorrow i'm
        supposed to interview someone who could be my future boss. any advice?
        \_ Aside from just managing programmers, a good manager will help run
           interferance with managment, either to help get more resources
           when they're needed, politely tell managment what is/is not possible
           and give managment and programmers realistic deadlines. One group at
           my work is hemmoraging programmers because upper managment keeps
           telling them different things are the #1 priority and the constant
           task switching and false urgency is causing burnout.  My manager is
           good at saying "we need to finish X first, then we can go do Y."
        \_ respect, attitude, smarts.  You don't want a manager that won't
           respect his/her team: eg. one interested in CYA or politics or
           self-aggrandizement.  You want one who realizes that his/her team
           is his/her strength, something to rely on, to respect, treat will,
           and even to promote.  ie. someone who understands your success is
           his/her success.  Rather than someone who tries to co-opt your
           success.  Also, how well you get along with your boss is very
           important: people skills, friendliness, personality, etc.  And
           someone who's intelligent enough (and technical enough) for you
           to work with and communicate clearly with.  Oh, and the above
           poster is also correct in saying you want a manager that will
           fight for/protect/defend your team.
        \_ Exactly the same thing happened to me a few years ago.  I hestitated
           to interview the candidate because I knew nothing about management,
           but the VP told me to just go and grill him for his technical
           skills.  He did okay, we ended up hiring him, and he ended up being
           my boss.  It worked out fine.  -- yuen
        \_ I'm in about the same boat right now.  Yes grill them on tech
           stuff IF THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO TECH STUFF.  Lots of managers
           tech skills aren't that important.  Much more important is for
           them to be able to manage.  Management is a support role, and
           in this case they should be supporting their team.  Ask the
           candidate what he will do to support the team, to sell himself
           as a net gain for you and your coworkers.