Eng Manager or start anew as SW Developer?
Since there are so many requests for career advice and mostly useful replies, I might as well give it a shot. I am a Bay Area engineering manager with an advanced degree in what I call old school engineering (think electrical, mechanical, chemical, etc.) and an MBA, both from good but not great schools. My TC sucks at $140K and it has been a challenge to get it higher unless I leave the area (not an option). A non-tech friend saw the salaries out here for software developers and suggested maybe I should make a career change. This would involve basically walking away from my education and experience, which is a sunk cost. But at the same time, I am damn near 40 and will be well into my 40's by the time I would be qualified to seek out that better job. And it is not about the money alone. I tweak code and trace macros regularly during my career and enjoy it and know I could do it at a more meaningful level. I aced intro to computer science in my sleep and would have loved more of a challenge. Not the best ways to gauge my skill, I know. TL;DR: Should I stay the course as an engineering manager and keep trying for better pay or start fresh at an advanced age in software development?
Considered a tech bootcamp? They can get you going pretty quickly, companies like FB, Uber and AirBnB hire from them. FB actually has an rotational eng program for cases like yours. Once you’re in, it’ll probably take you a year or two to transition into management if that’s the route you want to go.
I can stay in engineering or go into management. My only worry was if a boot camp is enough or if I really need a degree since I have little (no) experience but it seems like they work. I was looking at a master's degree out of Ga Tech to get my foot in the door if a boot camp wasn't enough.
From everything i know from bootcamps, people with your kind of background (advances degree, experience in engineering) fare the best. They also seem better at prepping people for interviews and the job hunt. On the other hand, a lot of companies have recruitment programs for grad students.
There is a lack of good engineering managers in Bay Area. I am surprised you can't find other engineering manager jobs. Which industry are you an engineering manager in? Hardware TC on Blind has been lower than Software TC.
You're on point. There are plenty of jobs, but not very good TC in my experience. You would think it would be easy to leverage the job market into TC but it hasn't been the case. I am in hardware which is probably why I am seeing low TC compared to software engineering.