Career advice - Management vs IC path
I feel I am okay at coding but not great at it. I’m more of a conceptual person than a 10x coder. I have a decent level of interpersonal communication skills. I do not have a great organizing/planning/execution skills but I feel that might be easier to develop than becoming a 10x coder. But this is not to say that I wish to permanently leave programming.
Given all of these, what do you think my personality inclines more towards? Am I better off pursuing the management career path rather than an IC path? Or this is just a temporary phase in everyone’s career and it resolves by itself once you work on something bigger and better?
What would be more sustainable in the long run given my personality traits?
If you think management is a better path then how do you suggest me to approach this? Eg Any steps that I can follow? Thanks in advance.
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Discussion
(1 comment)- 02 months agoEng @ Taro
A common misconception about being a 10x coder is that it means you have to produce 10x the amount of code as your average software engineer. In reality, it's more about having 10 times the impact as your average software engineer. In this way, I think it actually helps you to be a conceptual thinker because you to see the bigger picture, identify the right problems to tackle, and come up with effective solutions. At higher levels of being an IC, you'll actually be doing less coding and more strategic thinking.
Both coding skills and organizing/planning/execution skills can be developed, so the real question is: what do you enjoy doing more?
If you favor organizing, planning, and helping others succeed, it might be worthwhile to invest more in the manager path. On the other hand, if you enjoy tackling technical challenges and refining your craft, staying on the IC path might be more fulfilling.
It does sound like you're heavily considering the manager path from your post. I think the stakes are low enough for you to take a stab at it. it's a two-day door, and I've seen a lot of managers go back to being an IC if they didn't enjoy it.
