[zgluck]

(Context: Northern Europe)

Switching jobs is quite hard as an (engineering) manager, at least if you're a bit introverted like me. Often you depend on the number of people who trust you from their experience working with you that have switched companies and have come into a trusted position there.

My career:

ages 20-30: Individual contributor.

ages 30-45: (Engineering) manager, running product development teams of varying sizes (up to about 50 people), being all over the architecture/system design. Not really coding in a focused way.

ages 45-now: Individual contributor, coding most of the time.

I was really concerned I wouldn't be able to keep the interest in actual coding all day long when I went back to that, but lo and behold, I'm actually finding it more fun and rewarding than the management roles. Stress is down too.

You too can recover from being a manager :).

[jareklupinski]

thinking about making a move towards management, for a similar reason: I really enjoy programming, but after slinging code for 8 hours at work, I can't justify working on my hobby projects when I come home anymore...

hoping that by using more of my "soft skills" and thinking about architecture at work, I'll be able to come home and work something like a solitaire solver without feeling like it's "non-productive"

[frabcus]

I think over the years it's healthy to switch back and forth between management and IC, and sometimes inbetween as a tech-lead manager.

Being recently hands on with the technology helps coach and assess reports and means you know the real situation of the software.

Being a manager, if you carve out enough space, lets you make a highly productive, happy, successful team, and sometimes you might be the best person to do that.

I think I'd find only doing one forever more a bit tiring!

[BowBun]

Super funny, I went through the same swing.

I was able to eventually cool off on technical burn out as a manager and went back to working on some personal projects. Eventually though, sitting in meetings all day for 12+ months had the same mental effect and I lost motivation and burn out increased. I'm back as an IC now and balancing my time better.

I think the better solution may be to find a way to pace yourself at work so you aren't slinging code for 8 hours. It's unlikely many of your coworkers are doing the same. I think it's important to find a sustainable pace at work and to just say no to the rest. Hopefully your company supports that.

[zgluck]

It will depend lots on the product/project. In my case the product we built went gangbusters for a decade. I ended up abusing/building Lego kits as form of mindless therapeutics while watching very-easy-to-digest sitcoms to wind down. I have quite the collection now.

Most products/projects aren't like that that though - but perhaps the pressure is still there?

[pillefitz]

Funny, I thought the same before switching to a product role. Reality is, it's a lot more demanding than my previous engineering role and I do a lot less private coding than before.