I'm in a similar position as you as well. I don't have any desire to move into management positions but have moved into tech lead positions. I do want to return to a more 'developer' role in the future however.
I've been doing full stack development and I know the backend architecture fairly well, so I could progress into a architect role if needed, but I'm not sure I would enjoy it (at least not yet).
Unpopular Opinion Ahead:
The developer market (like any market) has changed throughout the years so what we see today won't be the same in 10 years time. While people may want it to say as it is, the market is always adjusting. So a organization may be happy to keep a developer as a developer for 20+ years, if that person were to try and change jobs another developer position, I feel that would be hard (but not impossible)
I think there will still be a market for developers with particular skillsets in large organizations with older systems, but I feel it will be a challenge for a "older" developer to complete in the popular frameworks used by younger developers.
I hope I'm just being overly pessimistic about the future(and would love to hear some counter arguments) and to be honest , some of my negative thoughts are based on the 'current trends' I'm personally seeing...which won't necessary be long term trends.
FWIW, listen to your gut on what you would and wouldn't like. I liked the IDEA of management (having more control) and I moved into a director position with a smaller company. I learned a lot, including that I preferred development, and eventually went back to it (which paid $40k less but I was WAY happier every day). About 10 years later, I'm back up to what I was originally making but this time as an architect so I'm still able to do a pretty decent amount of coding, even if it's interspersed with less-fun activities. However, the architect role allows me the oversight to still make sure rookies don't go off in disastrous directions and projects are all done well, so it's a pretty nice spot to be in.
I like how you emphasis the IDEA of management over the actual execution of the role, I think I feel similarly, I like the idea of it but mostly because of the illusion of freedom that comes with it but I don't think I'd enjoy going to work everyday if I didn't get to build stuff. Or at least that's my thinking at this stage of my career anyway.
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I'm in a similar position as you as well. I don't have any desire to move into management positions but have moved into tech lead positions. I do want to return to a more 'developer' role in the future however.
I've been doing full stack development and I know the backend architecture fairly well, so I could progress into a architect role if needed, but I'm not sure I would enjoy it (at least not yet).
Unpopular Opinion Ahead:
The developer market (like any market) has changed throughout the years so what we see today won't be the same in 10 years time. While people may want it to say as it is, the market is always adjusting. So a organization may be happy to keep a developer as a developer for 20+ years, if that person were to try and change jobs another developer position, I feel that would be hard (but not impossible)
I think there will still be a market for developers with particular skillsets in large organizations with older systems, but I feel it will be a challenge for a "older" developer to complete in the popular frameworks used by younger developers.
I hope I'm just being overly pessimistic about the future(and would love to hear some counter arguments) and to be honest , some of my negative thoughts are based on the 'current trends' I'm personally seeing...which won't necessary be long term trends.
FWIW, listen to your gut on what you would and wouldn't like. I liked the IDEA of management (having more control) and I moved into a director position with a smaller company. I learned a lot, including that I preferred development, and eventually went back to it (which paid $40k less but I was WAY happier every day). About 10 years later, I'm back up to what I was originally making but this time as an architect so I'm still able to do a pretty decent amount of coding, even if it's interspersed with less-fun activities. However, the architect role allows me the oversight to still make sure rookies don't go off in disastrous directions and projects are all done well, so it's a pretty nice spot to be in.
thanks for the reply!
You describe a role I hope to be at some point. An architect yet still doing a 'decent' amount of coding.
Same ☝️😅
I like how you emphasis the IDEA of management over the actual execution of the role, I think I feel similarly, I like the idea of it but mostly because of the illusion of freedom that comes with it but I don't think I'd enjoy going to work everyday if I didn't get to build stuff. Or at least that's my thinking at this stage of my career anyway.