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I'll add here, even if it's not really what you're looking for. I'm a director, not at faang, fwiw. My first 2 years of managing was hands on, probably 50% coding. I had a small scope and the energy to do people things while also doing coding things. What I found was that this doesn't scale and that if I ever wanted to lead larger initiatives and have a bigger impact, I'd need to give up coding. During this period, I burnt out trying to grow both technically and managerially. The context switching required of me was too much. When I got to a position where I could do people management 100% of the time, it was transformative. In the same way we think about coding - what skills do I need to develop, how can I optimize XYZ, is there a better pattern for this, etc - I now started to think about management. Part of this is that I joined an org that truly valued management and was able to be mentored and allowed to develop my skills. Now as a director, I insist that my new managers don't code. There is a period of time where you need to focus on management and nothing else. Later on, I don't care if you want to get into the code, but at that point, no one chooses to. It does seem like the industry is split on where a manager title exists and if you're hands on. Regardless of which way you go, you'll find career growth imo. I would consider if you feel like you're being the best manager you can be though. |