Context is critical here. Are you at a startup or a large company such as Google?
There are plenty of startups that have poor management: if you work at one of those, the amount of "experience" isn't going to be as valuable.
A similar argument can be made against larger companies: there are plenty of places that do not innovate, and company politics get in the way of real work. Unless your goal is to learn how to not do work but still dominate the office space, you probably don't want to work there either.
So what do you do?
The people you work with are extremely important. The company should show a desire to be unified and work together towards a common goal. Example: think Microsoft today versus just a few years ago.
I once took a job as an Engineering Director at a company that could not decide what the vision was (during the interview I was led to believe that there was a common vision). Each department would fight against one another rather than work together. My boss (and his boss) rarely came to work. HR was so scared of lawsuits (there had been some bad ones previously) that it took months to remove employees who rarely even showed up to work (eventually slackers realized they could get away with their slacking). Most major decisions were made by other department heads without consulting me, even though my team was responsible for implementing. This lead to numerous conversations where I had to explain that there was no budget for such idea. A lot of time was wasted.
I had an employee that desired to learn from me and was interested in developing their career into an engineering manager. She had the right attitude, but unfortunately the environment was the wrong place. When I left, I ended up referring her to another company I knew would do a much better job of enabling her to achieve her career goals. I knew she could find great people and a mentor there.
Regardless if you work at a company with strong or weak management, anyone taking on a leadership role should have a mentor. Great CEOs of large companies have mentor(s) - it's a key to growth as well as keeping a well-rounded vantage point.
In summary:
The right environment is important. I once had a product manager tell me: "he was a C player here, but over at company X, he's an A player. Some people fit into places better than others."
Great leaders work together
Great leaders delegate (stay away from places that don't give you "time to delegate")
Great leaders have other leaders as mentors
Great leaders work at companies of all shapes and sizes
Great leaders ask lots of questions
Asking this question on this forum is the right thing to do. As I stated in the beginning though: don't ask "yes" or "no" questions. You usually won't get such a thorough response as this ;)
This is pretty much exactly what I was going to write, only better. Books are good, learning from a mentor is better - and learning from a mentor in a healthy environment is the best.
For anyone who wants to be a manager, especially an engineering manager, find a good one, tell them that you want to be a manager, and ASK THEM TO BE YOUR MENTOR, even if they don't manage you directly.
The answer is Yes, No, and sometimes when...
Context is critical here. Are you at a startup or a large company such as Google?
There are plenty of startups that have poor management: if you work at one of those, the amount of "experience" isn't going to be as valuable.
A similar argument can be made against larger companies: there are plenty of places that do not innovate, and company politics get in the way of real work. Unless your goal is to learn how to not do work but still dominate the office space, you probably don't want to work there either.
So what do you do?
The people you work with are extremely important. The company should show a desire to be unified and work together towards a common goal. Example: think Microsoft today versus just a few years ago.
I once took a job as an Engineering Director at a company that could not decide what the vision was (during the interview I was led to believe that there was a common vision). Each department would fight against one another rather than work together. My boss (and his boss) rarely came to work. HR was so scared of lawsuits (there had been some bad ones previously) that it took months to remove employees who rarely even showed up to work (eventually slackers realized they could get away with their slacking). Most major decisions were made by other department heads without consulting me, even though my team was responsible for implementing. This lead to numerous conversations where I had to explain that there was no budget for such idea. A lot of time was wasted.
I had an employee that desired to learn from me and was interested in developing their career into an engineering manager. She had the right attitude, but unfortunately the environment was the wrong place. When I left, I ended up referring her to another company I knew would do a much better job of enabling her to achieve her career goals. I knew she could find great people and a mentor there.
Regardless if you work at a company with strong or weak management, anyone taking on a leadership role should have a mentor. Great CEOs of large companies have mentor(s) - it's a key to growth as well as keeping a well-rounded vantage point.
In summary:
Asking this question on this forum is the right thing to do. As I stated in the beginning though: don't ask "yes" or "no" questions. You usually won't get such a thorough response as this ;)
That was a great answer, Chris. Wow.
Now I wonder what other questions I should ask you!
This is pretty much exactly what I was going to write, only better. Books are good, learning from a mentor is better - and learning from a mentor in a healthy environment is the best.
For anyone who wants to be a manager, especially an engineering manager, find a good one, tell them that you want to be a manager, and ASK THEM TO BE YOUR MENTOR, even if they don't manage you directly.
I've never had anyone say no.
I'm curious - for those who said "No", what are your favorite other ways to learn? What are your favorite learning materials/books/websites?