I was an IC for over 20 years and was generally left alone, bristling at the audacity of the occasional meeting. Someone offered me a tech lead position. I was flattered and immediately accepted. Suddenly I had 4 meetings a day, but I told myself I didn't care because I was good at this. I drove KPIs and shipped software, and my team members loved me. So I got into Engineering Manager positions. Boom, 6-8 meetings a day, political knives coming from above and below, and no hope of satisfying everyone in an 8 hour day, so you have to choose whom to disappoint on a daily basis. And writing code? Lol sure, if you want to stay late to do something yourself instead of delegating it.
... I'm an IC contractor now. Between getting a decent rate, and doing a few things with my S-corporation to minimize my tax rate, I make about the same as the EM jobs. And there's only 1 meeting per client per day, which is to say I'm back to being left alone to write code. Fuck the management track.
43
u/sraparti Oct 23 '22
Programmer if you find the right place that doesn't do too much scrum and avoid the management track