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)
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.