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I’ve met many programmers/engineers who are terrified of becoming management and make (what I believe to be) poor career choices trying to avoid it. Instead they get passed over for pay raises and interesting opportunities because they’re seen as being difficult to work with. When times get lean, I’ve seen those people get laid off first because no one likes working with them.

I work on a team of 50 employees. For those 50 people, there are two managers. 1 out of 25 isn’t great odds of being accidentally promoted into management without your consent.

Your working style may be right for you, I’m not questioning that. But in a thread targeted at career advice for junior engineers, I thought it’d chime in from the other side. The chances of accidentally ending up as a manager are very slim. Don’t destroy your career and miss out on interesting opportunities to avoid something that’s not likely in the first place.




If only we could retroactively demote all the managers who suck at it!


If you're at a healthy organization, they support managers transitioning back into engineering.


> I work on a team of 50 employees. For those 50 people, there are two managers. 1 out of 25 isn’t great odds of being accidentally promoted into management without your consent.

Where I work it's about 8/50.

But I don't have to worry about being a manager - because they only get hired from outside.




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