[mclovinit]

I took a management path at first, thinking it was a natural progression upon obtaining over a decade and a half of experience and being enouraged by my peers over the years. I was never unhappier. I gave it everything I could. My team loved me and I shielded them from mountains of pain and frustration. I got sick from stress and mildly depressed from lack of a technically creative outlet. It took me over a year to recover physically and now I am fully back in the game developing as a technical lead. I still manage, obviously, but within a different context.

From my standpoint, I do not regret anything. I learned from these experiences because I love to explore and am not afraid to fail along the way.

I see so many that seek advice when they have the power to take action themselves. So much time wasted really.

[gwbas1c]

I get the impression that it's always "easy" to move into management, so there's no need to rush into a management role.

In contrast, I fear that once I try management, it will be hard to move back to being a developer.

How easy / hard was it for you to return to being a developer?

[LVB]

I think it's a function of time and effort. Every day you're not in a dedicated developer role, you will lose a tiny bit of "free" updating about what developers do, use, love, hate, etc. You can offset this somewhat by your own efforts, but they will be limited because the process of working with other developers bringing something to production is its own thing, separate from just keeping tech skills sharp.

I've always been quite active with side projects and moved back into development after about 5 years being in management. It went OK. Everyone was younger than me, stuff had obviously changed and I was out of my comfort zone for sure, but it was a successful transition. If I'd not been so into development on the side (i.e. constantly writing tools and apps with new technologies), I feel it would have been pretty difficult to switch back.

[mclovinit]

I agree. In my mind, I felt a lot of self-doubt at first, but after digging in, that fear helped propelled me. I suppose if it wasn't for that fear of not being good enough and side projects, I would not have transitioned easily. I also underestimated my ability to adapt quickly.

Today I am very much hands on and I make it known that writing code and designing is my passion.

[mclovinit]

I secretly stayed active during that role. It takes dedication. Some of this comes from work ethic. I had that drilled into me with the family biz growing up. My tolerance for abuse and failure is high. I focus on looking at myself as a business entity even if I work full time somewhere. Sometimes it isn't enough, but I think going through a tough upbringing had pulled me through. I always find myself asking the question, "Do I want to just want for the rest of my life or do?"... I also still dream and dreaming is key to driving forward. My wife fills the entrpreneurial role right now with escessive travel trying to build something in a new market. I help where I can...so this is me trying something new again ;) We never know where life will lead us so best to take it by the horns and find out :)

[CIPHERSTONE]

I think it would depend in large part with how active you keep your programming skills and how up to date you stay on industry changes. Sure, your initial reaction to reading this is that you would stay sharp as ever, but management is a different kind of grind, and it tends to wear on your soul. Perks are good, trade offs not so good.

Personally, I'm glad I got our of management and back into the nuts and bolts side of the house.

[rb808]

I was the same. Its great you shielded all the crap from the team, but it didn't turn out very well. Next time I'm going to try and shield but also delegate lots of crap guilt free!