Hello HN! Question for you.
TLDR: Mid career Staff Level Software Engineer, keep coding or time for management?
Background:
I've been a software engineer in the bay area for about 10 years now. I'm working for a top 10 tech company currently and I've always been one of the few key players/lead on the teams I've worked on.
At my current company I've been offered a couple paths. One continue to remain technical and entrenched in new projects and features at a senior level individual contributor. This path is not only very interesting but also in an up and coming domain in the tech industry. (Not just another web app)
Path 2: Go into management. I feel this is not as glamorous and will involve a lot of mentoring and essentially what amounts paper pushing, I'm thinking at this point in my career I should really start on a management track. My worry is that if I start too late I'll be one of those employees who never makes it into management.
I'd like the input of mid-career or senior level software engineers/managers/directors of technology. Is it time to go into management or should keep pushing the limits as an individual contributor?
P.S. A few quick notes. I still love programming and I'm not tired of it even though I've written a lot of code over the past 10 years. My ideal scenario would be to manage a cutting edge project but also still write code but I know this is not really an option as I'd like to maintain some work like balance for the sake of my wife and kids.
