[tracer4201]

  > Has anyone ever been promoted to an engineering manager and decided it wasn't for them?

Engineering manger and IC are different jobs. An EM title is never a promotion. It is a career or job role change. The skill sets and value proposition are entirely different.

So much personal stress and in some cases negative team or business impact could be prevented if we stop thinking of management as a promotion and more as a career shift.

If you’re unhappy, think about root causing what specifically it is you’re unhappy about. If you DO want to be a manager but not for this team, that’s a different challenge than if you do not want to manage people at all.

If it’s something you don’t want to do, have a heart to heart with your direct manager and tell him or her how you feel. This is less about quitting - if your manager is worth working for, they’ll give you the right encouragement to stay in the role and help remove obstacles and unnecessary challenges off your plate. Or they should help you transition and return to an IC role.