Ask HN: Have you moved to a manager/lead role and realised you prefer coding?
I moved to more of a lead role about a year ago but I find myself jumping in to coding more often recently.
Is there anything wrong with going back to full time development? Is there anything wrong with going back to full time development? Yes. Age discrimination is pretty common for tech jobs of all types. Ask if anyone over the age of 35 has ever tried to get a coding job. Particularly if they have a life --- wife, kids, mortgage, etc.. A lot of companies (particularly startups) will instinctively run away from this. Or better yet, just look for stats on the percentage of coders over/under the age of 35. They are kinda hard to come by but the stats I've seen suggest that more than 90% of developers are 35 or younger. Just look at those you work with to see if this isn't true. Where do all the older developers go? Employers want you to believe they all move into management --- but this is absurd. Again, just look at your workplace to judge if this makes sense. Bottom line --- it depends on what you want/expect from your career once you hit middle age. There's nothing wrong with that. You might be interested in this blog post from someone who's gone back and forth from IC => manager a couple times. https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum... Disclaimer: I did not write the blog post but am a fan :) Management = Misery