[ianrathbone]

I remember starting as a developer wanting to be respected by my elders, and just looking to become senior as soon as possible. I got it and didn't feel very different.

I jumped at an opportunity to manage the software department and enjoyed the managerial side and representing the team within the rest of the company. I didn't like the politics and I didn't like knowing what I started to know about the company itself. A pretty big weight that took it's toll.

Most of all I missed coding, I wasn't doing it enough and I started to fall behind on the industry.

The idea of a Lead role is something I courted but then realised it may not be rewarding. I'd like to know how other lead's find their role...

[ido]

When I worked as a lead most often I would:

* sit in a lot of meetings with management/other departments

* try to filter company politics from my team (thus absorbing it myself)

* would try to find what work would be most suitable and rewarding (considering interest & future growth) for each of my developers, thus in practice ending up with the most boring bug-fix & other maintenance tasks myself

* participating in a lot of project-management as well as people-management of my direct reports (weekly one on ones, conflict resolution, planning career growth, etc)

In practice I found the role of Principle Developer much more rewarding.