I tried the manager route for a while and ultimately decided it was not for me. I would go home at the end of the day feeling that I accomplished nothing despite that never being the case. I would spend my time trying to keep the heat off my people, allow them to focus on their jobs and not deal with the politics of situations. The group was successful, I did not feel that I was.

I was still getting my fingers dirty whenever possible however my knowledge was getting stale, stagnant even. I was told that I had to get myself completely out of the technical to move up the management chain. I sat down and gave it a great deal of thought and came to realize that management had made me miserable. All the fun had gone out of my job and I was just not enjoying myself. Upshot was that I asked to move back to a technical role, never been so glad to do so. Sure, long days, much stress, people yelling, but so much better than management for me.