Ask HN: Lead developer but I just don't enjoy management
Director-level here. It&#x27;s great that you gave it a shot, but management isn&#x27;t for everyone! In fact, when most engineers come to me and say &quot;I want to be a manager,&quot; the first thing I say is &quot;No, you don&#x27;t.&quot;<p>Not in a judgmental way, and not in a mean way, but more as a warning system to say &quot;You want more money or responsibility, and management is one of many ways to get those things.&quot;<p>The other thing I say is, &quot;At some point during your management career, _you will stop writing code on a daily basis_.&quot; If you like writing code more than anything else, this probably isn&#x27;t the right role for you!<p>We then spend the rest of the conversation talking about what their goals are, and how we can get them there. Some folks are insistent that they want to be a manager, and we figure out a path to do that, and some folks are sufficiently deterred by the things I said.<p>It&#x27;s not that I don&#x27;t want you to be a manager, it&#x27;s that I want you to have a job that you are excited about, and for _most_ engineers, management is soul-draining. They want to write code and solve problems, not sit in endless meetings!<p>Because of this, I personally have zero compunction about anyone who becomes a manager and then comes to me and says, &quot;This isn&#x27;t for me. I hate it. Can I go back to being an IC?&quot;<p>No problem at all.<p>So with all of that said, management is NOT &quot;a part of career progression.&quot; You do NOT have to go into management. Most tech companies have two tracks for career progression: technical and management. At most companies, a Staff Engineer is the equivalent of a Manager, and a Principal engineer is the equivalent of a Director. You can continue to lead teams in a technical fashion without losing your entire week to meetings and people management. It&#x27;s possible. Your current company may not have that structure, but a lot of companies do!<p>If you feel comfortable doing this, I would go to your boss and say, &quot;Hey, I don&#x27;t love this management thing. I think I would have a bigger impact as an IC. Can we work on a transition plan to get me back to full-time IC work? I am happy to help hire my backfill.&quot;<p>This is very, very normal. Anyone who says otherwise is simply wrong.<p>Do not feel bad for yourself, do not feel like you failed. It&#x27;s simply a bad fit, and you are looking for a way to improve your own happiness and your own career path.<p>Good luck!