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Comment by ssss11 | Hacker News Reader

Have a good long think about why you want a management role. It is very different, despite the fact that if you become good at a contributor role you often just get promoted into management (I did).

If you like mentoring people, sharing knowledge, delegating tasks (yes, even the tech work you love) and dealing with things blocking the team like politics with other departments then go for it.

It can be rewarding but it can also be very draining and stressful, and isn’t for everyone, and I wish someone would have prepared me better the first time.

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This. It’s likely not worth it for most folks considering management. There’s no pay incentive. Significantly more people politics (managing up, down, side-ways), you’re in meetings all day AND expected to do other administrative stuff which will naturally fall outside your 9-5.

The worst part: once you experience the power trip, it’s also hard to go back. Even after knowing fully well that you’re getting the wrong end of the bargain. Truth is, for better or for worse, a good manager can have significant influence over many things (from roadmap, to people’s future, to their own future career prospects).

I find that it’s a tad bit easier to write my own destiny as a manager, without having to resort to changing jobs/roles.

Another big negative often not talked about: unlike software development, where your skills are transferable when you change companies - management = people and relationships. You lose them every time you change ships and have to rebuild from scratch.

disagree on the pay incentive, my salary went up A LOT, with additional benefits like company car, more holidays, bigger pension plan contributions and stock options.

But yeah, it is a different job. I mainly do it because I value the team where I was at, and believe that I can bring them next level and work on better and cooler projects in the company (instead of them always being delivered by crappy cheap consultants). Its satisfying to build the atmosphere and facilitate people becoming high performing at their job. And yes I dabble too much on the technical details and should stop messing with source code after hours oh well

> additional benefits like company car, more holidays, bigger pension plan contributions and stock options.

Are you in Europe? I've never heard of management benefits like a corporate car or additional holidays for management (both middle and upper) at both startups and massive publicly listed tech companies in the US.

In fact, benefits seemed largely in line between Management and peer ICs (eg. Tech Lead had similar perks+comp as EngMgr, DirEng had similar perks to Distinguished Eng, etc) with the added downside that Management roles included a massive amount of stress due internal politics surrounding roadmap, budget, and a lack of exit opportunities (a Dir of Eng with a background at Infra companies would be pigeonholed into other Infra companies)

“I’m sorry” - Most managers I know when finding out I was promoted from IC to manager

Obviously delivered tongue in cheek, but it’s a hard job and it’s not for everyone. I second everything the parent says and also add that your timescales are different. If you think waiting for a build is long, try waiting for your efforts to improve a directs’ communication skills to take hold. generally the most important, and the most fun, work of being manager takes years for feedback instead of hours.

The problem is that there isn't really a well-defined or stable career path upwards from IC that isn't some variation of role handling politics/delegation/process improvement, and because you're expected to "age out" of being an IC you really have no choice.

Recently I was asking a former Amazon business manager I know about thoughts on leadership vs. IC roles, and the advice about a leadership role was:

"You have to wake up in the morning excited about solving people problems with 'problem' people..."

Examples were then given about how sometimes you drop hints with people, sometimes you tell them outright, and sometimes despite all that they still don't/won't get it, and you try yet another approach (echoing other's posts here about the same). And so it's stressful unless you like these human issues. i.e., Don't consider leadership unless you derive some degree of "happiness" from "working with people on people."

Don’t forget ALL the meetings

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