A fork in the career road

1 points by windcliff ↗ HN
I'm a tech lead and I may be promoted in the future. My options are to 'level up' as a pure engineer or manager. Can you help me weigh my options?

I'm a jack of all trades. I don't have a PhD and I don't have depth of expertise in a single area: I won't make Principal Engineer. I still love to build systems and I enjoy coding, but I want to code in a team and not in the isolation of my office.

The value I bring relative to other good engineers is the energy and drive I bring to projects. I'm stubborn (in a good way), I'll out hustle people, and I sweat the details. That makes me a good tech lead.

I'm not sure how well that translates into a full manager role. I'm also slightly concerned about losing my technical skills. In my last job I was a tech lead and recruiters constantly asked me "do you still code?".

If I do choose the management route how would I ensure that I can still get a job in the future? For those SDEs who've transitioned to a management role, how did you find getting your next job thereafter? How many stayed in management? What were the pitfalls you experienced?

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