I am a fairly seasoned manager with roughly 4 years of mgmt experience at Amazon. I am pretty good at it but maybe not the best at it. Was an SDE prior to that. I'm kinda done with the incessant politics and bureaucracy and I've been thinking of going back to being an IC. I also miss the coding and deep problem solving. I want to hear from people who have made such a transition. Tips, tricks, warnings, lessons. Please share your experience. P.s. I've been leetcoding and I. Am. Rusty. !
No tips or tricks, just happiness. So much less stress.
When you see incompetent sdes moving into management and bossing around, how would you feel?
Are you implying that I might be incompetent as a manager or IC or both?
I think it's the opposite, he implies that if you transition to IC, other less capable engineers would become managers.
I did recently, though I was only a manager for 2 years. I felt rusty for a few months and then it all came back. In many ways you'll be a better IC with the manager experience The key is finding a manager who will support your ramp up and make use of you em/IC skills.
Is ic promotion easier now that you’ve been a manager? Do you understand priorities and expectations better?
Thanks for confirming that. It makes sense that being a manager can help. Were you at FB through this process? I'm considering a company switch. It might be harder for me to find that supportive manager.
OP here. Still a manager. Went to Google for a pay bump and different kind of politics though. So boring I almost miss the Amazon crazy. At least life was interesting.
You might also consider finding another team to manage, a team with a need for a technical manager.
That's on the plate as well.