Thanks for this, it helped me think through some very specific things that I have been struggling with at my startup. I joined out of school as one of the first engineers excited as hell, but have been somewhat sad/depressed/etc. over the last few months because I've felt a lack of direction and proper guidance.

Over lunch, president asks me if I wanted to become an engineering manager or something of that nature as well as take management coaching classes. It was a very sad thing to hear someone say to an engineer.

We want to lead by example. Thought, learning, and then code. We want to set or be a part of an engineering culture that has the freedom to be creative in our space. Some roles that jump out at are the developer advocate type roles. Not just "Hey, look at what you can do with our APIs", but be learning and sharing that knowledge with our peers and others around the web (recruiting).

Maybe it's time for a change.