(assuming you already enjoy programming)<p>I enjoy programming, but doing so in a professional environment is a shit show. Daily standups, open plan offices, code reviews, stack ranking... it's an entirely different experience.<p>Has anyone found that they have enjoyed programming, but moved into management and enjoyed it more?
It's usually the opposite. The pressure is actually stronger when you're a manager. As an individual contributor you're not involved in a bunch of meetings, where management discusses issues, priorities, hot topics etc. It's harder to give a status update as a manager on a task rather than the person handling the task. And you're not talking to your teammates about your mini task in your project at a standup, you have to report to people who have more impact on the future of the company than you do. So any wrong info and the concequences are huge.<p>A typical breakdown would be:<p>- %30 about coaching your team members, hiring, 1-1, career path<p>- %50 status update to upper management, talking about
issues and stressful stuff<p>- %20 hands-on<p>Being an Individual Contributor is actually more enjoyable in a long run when you look at the salary gap... not worth it.<p>Last but not least, interviewing for a manager position is really painful when you're coming from the outside. People often have a lot of frustration due to their previous managers who screwed things up. But they had to stay quite for a while. So when it comes to judging their future direct report, there's no filter. It won't cost me my job if I tell people you're not the right candidate/manager for our team during an interview briefing. So finding a manager job is super tough. You'll have to stick with the same employer for a while or you'll have to go back down as an IC, land a job, then work your way back up to a manager role. How painful is that?
I love management, and I've been approaching it like I've approached programming for a decade and a half. I mostly read business books these days, subscribe to business/leadership podcasts & newsletters, and so on. I even used my training budget to take a one-day leadership course at the Disney Institute, which was really helpful because they were honest about the challenges running such a big organization, working with thousands of employees and a bunch of unions.<p>I feel like I'm facing a new set of challenges, very different ones than I did as a programmer. I'm dealing more with keeping clients happy, and I'm great at keeping honest communication going between programmers and non-technical stakeholders because I'm used to living in both worlds. And since I spent so long as a programmer, I love he opportunities I get to challenge my team and help them grow their careers - opportunities I often didn't get when my career was starting out.<p>Not writing code all day at work has made programming fun for me again, too. I used to dread writing code in the morning and I was seriously considering changing careers. Now, I open up VS Code after my kid goes to bed and I actually enjoy it, even if what I'm working on never gets seen by anybody but me.
I have moved from being a Principal Engineer, to Product Management and now am leading Engineering. Must say that I have enjoyed the journey so far, and the learning has been exponential. I was hands-on when I was a PM, and am still. As a PM, quick PoCs helped me get across my idea quicker and when you lead Engineering, complete understanding of the details is the most important so that course corrections and strategy can be defined well.<p>Being hands-on keeps me sane.<p>Did a 1-year part-time Management course in one of the top BSchools, at the end of my tenure as a PM - wasn't of great benefit, as I think that the idea of a MBA is becoming largely irrelevant. I think a good selection of courses in MooC helps; in fact, for me, I was so much fascinated by courses in Coursera that led me to do the part-time Exec Mgmt course. But I must say that the experience of the Professors and getting back to school after almost a decade was enjoyable. Just listening to the lectures of the Profs was much needed.<p>During the whole journey, I cultivated the habit of reading and writing(a lot!) and I can personally see my thought process mature. But I know it's just tip of the iceberg.<p>I think the most important trait is not to stop learning whatever you do. I know it sounds cliched, but it is what it is.<p>Am always on the lookout for smart people with whom I can work with and learn.
I moved after I left Microsoft, and I never looked back. The key for me was doing it at the right time for me, but also within the right place. I would never have taken a management position at Microsoft! When I started I was in my late 30's, had recently had children and was just a different person to that which I'd been as an engineer. It was a natural progression. Many companies had offered me management positions previously, but I'd always turned them down as wrong place or wrong time. When I finally did move it was into a smallish Nordic company (about 150 staff), where I still had a good hands on potential. Then over the next 5 -6 years I slowly took increasingly senior roles and decreased the amount of technical work. In my current role I've not done a single technical thing and I'm extremely happy. I absolutely love managing technical staff and engineers, and they tell me I'm quite good at it. I put this down to many years of seeing how it shouldn't be done (particularly at Microsoft!) and my simple principle tends to be "done act like a dick". This along with positive reinforcement and a strengths based approach to my teams takes me a long way.<p>I still tinker at home but now my main outlet technically is teaching children to program through @codeclub.<p>If I was to say one thing, it's to chose the organisation you do such a move with very carefully. Just because a company is a great employer in one role does not make it a good one in another.
I did do that years ago and enjoyed it. But I missed programming so went back to that. Now I am moving slowly back to management again with lessons learned. That said, I have always had a management title and as I do not believe in daily standups, open plan offices or stack ranking, so I never had those experiences as a programmer. Nor did the people we employed.