[sg47]

I had roughly 6 years of experience before I made the transition. I had spent a considerable part of those 6 years thinking about all the things I'd do if I were the manager of my team. Whenever I interviewed for an IC role, I made my intentions clear that I wanted to get into management long-term. I was offered a management role 5 months into a job and I took it. All those years of thinking about management enabled me to transition nearly smoothly.

Looking back, the 6 years I spent coding were extremely valuable. The only way I'd have become a manager after 2-3 years was if I had had a good mentor. My advice would be to spend the next 3-5 years building a lot of things and observing your leaders closely. Read about what great managers do and don't do and play out scenarios in your head.