What were your thoughts of going from coding full time to switching to leadership positions? Any reflections on the transition that you'd like to share?
Also, did you ever juggle with doing both at the same time?
I started writing software in 1984. Over the years I worked with many languages, technologies, and tools. I have been in leadership positions since the early 2000s, and in executive roles since 2014.
The most important thing is that you must be sure that you want to do it. I did it the first time many years ago thinking that it was going to be "business as usual plus some extra management stuff." In reality is a different job, and different focus. It is very difficult to get into a state of coding flow if you are going to be doing coding and management at the same time.
If you want to take the leadership track I recommend to embrace it completely and see how much coding you can fit in your schedule. It will be mostly up to you to decide at that point.
Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense. I'm personally nowhere near taking a leadership role, but I've been thinking about what kind of a career I'd like to have as a developer (and if that includes leadership).
I started writing software in 1984. Over the years I worked with many languages, technologies, and tools. I have been in leadership positions since the early 2000s, and in executive roles since 2014.
What were your thoughts of going from coding full time to switching to leadership positions? Any reflections on the transition that you'd like to share?
Also, did you ever juggle with doing both at the same time?
The most important thing is that you must be sure that you want to do it. I did it the first time many years ago thinking that it was going to be "business as usual plus some extra management stuff." In reality is a different job, and different focus. It is very difficult to get into a state of coding flow if you are going to be doing coding and management at the same time.
If you want to take the leadership track I recommend to embrace it completely and see how much coding you can fit in your schedule. It will be mostly up to you to decide at that point.
Gotcha, that makes a lot of sense. I'm personally nowhere near taking a leadership role, but I've been thinking about what kind of a career I'd like to have as a developer (and if that includes leadership).
Excellent. Knowing what you want is super important. It allows you to jump into opportunities when they open up.