[tgittos]

No tip, just story.

I moved into an engineering management role from IC for a year at a previous company. I also found the experience unfulfilling and wanted to move back to my old IC level.

Right around my yearly review I told my manager that I wasn't digging it. Personally I found the effort-reward loop of management to be too long, and preferred the more immediate satisfaction of releasing incremental features to be more compelling than formally mentoring and guiding the developers under me. I explained this, and my manager was supportive and helped me find a more senior IC role in a different team.

We didn't really get to have the chance to talk about management succession plans as shortly after we had a RIF and my former team was absorbed into another team and the product we worked on was put on life support instead.

I personally didn't feel any shame as I was fairly certain I didn't want to be a manager. I only accepted the role because I was pressured to at least "give it a chance" by my ex-wife who thought it was a good career move. I was apprehensive at the idea that I might have to leave to be an IC again but it turns out those fears were unfounded.