[swasheck]

i’m conflicted on this one. i’ve actively resisted management roles (except once where i was expected to be both primary IC and team lead) in favor of increasing both breadth and depth of IC expertise. i’m consistently top tier of my teams due to much this.

however, when it comes time to find a new place i find i’m overlooked because im older than most IC, don’t have the requisite experience for management (usually an ATS weed out), or my salary is above most “normal” IC bands. so now i regret not adding more management experience to my CV

[scarface_74]

I saw the writing on the wall a decade ago and moved into cloud consulting. I’m 50 now.

In 2016, I was a senior engineer on two projects—one involving hiring contractors and another leading a legacy transformation with a small team. I preferred the latter.

Next, I joined a startup, gained hands-on AWS experience, led AWS initiatives across teams, and focused on POCs/MVPs, actively avoiding team lead roles.

Then, I landed at AWS Professional Services as a mid-level consultant, leading smaller projects or workstreams in larger ones.

After leaving, I had a choice: a strategy role overseeing acquisitions or a staff software architect position at a consulting firm. I chose the latter.

Now, I either work with customers to define requirements and project plans (acting as a solution architect) or lead multiple workstreams, coordinating architects, sales, customers, and project management.