Ask HN: How did you decide between management and technical track?

[ganashaw]

I'm trying to think about where I see myself in the future, and am struggling to decide between the management track vs. staying an individual contributor. I feel I have the skills to realistically pursue either, and I enjoy aspects of both, but am having trouble figuring out which I'd personally prefer. Any insights greatly appreciated!

[mcrittenden]

I realized that I was procrastinating my "go heads down and write some code" tasks, but not my people/team/leadership/management work. That was all I needed.

[valand]

You have both skills so, choose which one is valued more in your workplace.

If the management is lacking and you feel you can fill the void, go for it. Same with IC. Of course, you need to also see other aspect, such as could you grow if you're in management? Etc

People management and leadership can be found in (a good) management role. They are eventually useful inside and outside of work.

As an IC, you need to hone the technical fundamental and the creative side of the business. You need to survive by being reliable in solving different problems at different time for people. With the pace we are going with technology, you need to find the essence, the fundamentals, the universals, and to be more careful with the next best shiny techs. Being in IC is also not a reason to not learn leadership.

Sharing my personal exp: I really want to be in managerial to learn more about people, but my expertise lies more in my deeply technical skill and my workplace need me as IC. So here I am in the IC role.

I was in the managerial role a couple of times and I realize it is truly a challenge to move and rouse people without the ability to pay them! We both are working and getting paid by the same company, but somehow here I should be the one giving instructions. It needs a certain confidence to be good at it.

Whichever you choose, keep creating, keep living, and good luck!

[wizzerking]

I was in my mid 20's Silicon Valley Company I grew my team from myself and 1 employee to 6 full time employee and 2 contractors This was in 1990's The meetings were a bunch of good ole boys congratulating each other on sales, and profit sharing amounts. When everything was done after 3 months to define a new interface drawn on board, talked through, changed. When the new box was swhown to sales marketing their reaction was "I didn't know it was going to work like that !!!" I waited 1 month then quit, Never will I ever do that again Decision made people are my kryptonite !!!!!

[muzani]

I don't really have the choice. There's not a lot of good developers available here, so management seems to be stressful when you can do the work yourself faster.

It's either I spend 3 days negotiating a 3 day extension to the deadline, or I work on pointless things that a manager didn't remove from the list. The latter feels more productive, and pays slightly better, without the prestige.

[p0d]

I think if you are a good worker you will end up managing other people. Whether that be devs, engineers or researchers.

Managing other people is hard work. I think of it as a privilege. After 25 years in IT I am now more interested in people than hardware/software. Some of my highlights have been seeing people get jobs which changed their lives.

So I would say invest in learning about management/leadership.

[cutthegrass2]

Have you thought about the various Architect roles? Some companies, particularly Financial Services and organisations in the UK/Europe employ people in these roles. They're a good blend of technical/people/project leadership with an accompanying level of responsibility. Could be right up your street?

[Jemaclus]

(Source: I'm a Director-level with several managers reporting to me, and have been managing for 8 years now.)

What are your goals? is it just more money and responsibility? Is it helping other people? Do you get a thrill out of teaching and mentoring? Are you the kind of person who just has to be one of the decision makers? Is control and power over your life/destiny/work/others something you desire? These are all questions you should ask yourself right now.

I talk to my engineers very often about their career goals, and whenever they say they want to be managers, my first response is, "Why?" And then I listen to their reasons, and then I tell them all the reasons why management track career growth doesn't meet their goals. I am a _little_ hyperbolic when I talk about these, because in my experience, most people want more money and more responsibility, but do not like endless meetings and talking to people all day long, and the reason I kinda try to talk people out of it is that you can get all of those things WITHOUT becoming a manager. After this conversation, if they still want to pursue management, then I describe the expectations and we set milestones on how to get there.

All of this is to say that you need to have that conversation with your manager first. What exactly are the expectations of management vs IC?

Some more things to consider:

At some point in a management track career, assuming progression on that track, you will have to give up writing code. It will happen. You will eventually manage enough people that you don't have time to write code. Is that acceptable to you? If so, then that's one thing in favor of management track.

Do you like meetings? At some point your entire day will be nothing but meetings. If that's OK, then that's another in favor of management track.

Can you have hard conversations with people effectively? Every manager at some point will have to have a tough conversation with someone about their performance or their personality. Firing people is hard. Giving tough feedback is hard. Doing it well is even harder.

Do you hate office politics? If you hate office drama and you hate saying one thing but meaning another, then maybe management isn't for you. The higher you go, the more politics plays into it. There are people who will say "don't work at a place with office politics," but in my experience, it's unavoidable.

Anyway. I could go on for quite a bit about this, but at the end of the day, this is a conversation that YOU need to have with your boss. Make sure you fully understand the consequences of switching away from writing code full-time. It may have far-reaching impacts that you don't realize, both within the company and personally. Your own happiness and mental well-being can change drastically. Personally? I love management and I still write code for fun. But the stress that I feel at work is totally different as a manager than it was when I was an IC, and in many ways, that can be a bad thing.

Finally, and perhaps contrary to everything I said above, you can always change your mind. If you go into management, and six months down the road you decide you hate it, you can go back to being an IC. Maybe not at your current company. Maybe your own pride or company policy would forbid that. Totally understandable. But you can always find a new role at a new company as an IC. "I didn't like it. I very much prefer to be an IC and contribute in that manner" is a perfectly legitimate answer to "Why aren't you in management anymore?"

Good luck!

[ganashaw]

This is super insightful--thanks. You've listed a lot of things about the managerial track that are still achievable on an IC track. You've also listed something things that some may consider "downsides" and acknowledged that they are things that must be accepted on the manager's track (though they're not all downsides, I personally really enjoy [productive] meetings).

I'm curious what you perceive as the reasons _to_ go into management? What do you enjoy about it?

[Jemaclus]

In my background I taught high school English for a few years, and while I wasn't that great at it, I will always remember when a student's eyes lit up when something clicked in their heads. When a joke Shakespeare made finally made sense, or when the magic of poetry moved them to tears, or when they found themselves surprised to relate to Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. In that sense, being a manager is also about being a mentor. Helping an engineer fix a bug, resolve an interpersonal conflict, improve their mental well-being, help them level up their careers... all of that is rewarding. Helpful. Making things better. And that's just awesome. Who wouldn't want to do that?

While I have been extremely privileged in my life, I have also suffered through some personal tragedies and lived with things I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies, and those were things that were and are beyond my control. So in many ways, I crave control over my life and my destiny, and that's something I'll never have if I'm on the receiving end of a to-do list. The higher up I go in an organization, the more control I have over my destiny. I can choose which projects I want to work on, and I can delegate the things I don't. (In reality, I often find myself taking the projects that others do not want to do, but since it's my choice to do so, I still satisfy my objective.)

I am not interested in micromanagement. I do not rule by iron fist. I believe that I cannot make you do anything you do not want to do. I operate by consensus and collaboration, by radical candor, and by building trust with my teams so that when I ask them to do something, they want to do it because they trust that I have their best interests at heart, and that I'm not going to screw them over. In many ways, this is the reward for me.

I've been a loner my entire life. I don't have many friends. The friends that I do have all moved away over the years, and so now my social life is almost entirely online. But having a team that I can talk to at work, that trust me and believe in me and whom I can trust and believe in, that root for me and my success just as much as I root for them and theirs... That fills a lot of that void in my life, and it helps a lot in my quality of life. You don't need to be a manager to have this, but it helps. Most engineers operate in very small silos, but as a Director-level, I get to interact with a larger team of dozens of people per day. It helps.

In many ways, the reasons I wanted to go into management have to do with filling the voids in my own life: my feeling of lack of control, my lack of great social skills and close friends, my imposter syndrome, my desire to make a difference in the world, my disabilities and my weaknesses.

A computer will exactly what I ask it to do, without question and without deviation, for better or for worse. It doesn't talk back, it doesn't get excited when a problem is solved, it doesn't invite me to its weddings or birthday parties, it doesn't want to talk about the latest Bridgerton/The Expanse episode, it doesn't do anything except execute on its own code.

But a human? That's a whole different ballgame. Humans are challenging and frustrating, addicting and rewarding. And I hope that at the end of the day, when my employees sign off and go spend time with their friends and family, that they've contributed something to themselves or to the world around them. Kind of cheesy, but it's how I feel on my good days.

Hope that helps.

[jeffyang]

This is a great comment and I'm replying because I want to build on top of it.

Completely agree that the first priority is understanding your why and having a conversation with your manager.

After that, if you feel good about both paths, go ahead and try the managerial path. You've already experienced being an IC, why not experience management and see if you truly like it? As mentioned, it's easy to go back to being an IC and your management experience can only be helpful. You can set a timeline where you re-evaluate your decision so you don't get "stuck" by accident.

Lastly, the skills above like hard conversations are important, but you don't need to have the skills now. Right now you need to accept that you are okay with those being your reality and commit to learning the skills and not be that manager who doesn't tell you the truth and then you find out the hard way later on.

[greatwhitenorth]

Thanks for this. I already hate the couple of meetings I have as an engineer, can't imagine doing it all day every day. As an introvert, I will suck at meetings even more. Full technical track it is then.

[iwangulenko]

Technical recruiter here.

This is what I tell candidates:

If you like more people, do the team lead track, if you like more coding, to the tech lead, technical track.

[lmarcos]

I always thought the other way around is easier:

- if you like more people, then do the tech lead technical track. Why? Because the most difficult part in software engineering is how to deal with people. Since you're already good at it (because you like it) then that's a good advantage you have there. The tech part? You'll learn it.

-if you like more coding, then do the manager path. Why? Well, if you like coding you are probably good at it, and managers usually fail at understanding what it takes to push forward a tech project. The people part of the job? You'll learn it.

[iwangulenko]

Interesting, contrarian thinking