Decision Point: Stay on the Technical Track or Become a Manager

The decision of whether to be a manager or stay on the technical track is a tough one. It’s incredibly context-specific, and I can’t possibly tell you what to do. However, as someone who has dreamed and lived both of these tracks, I can tell you how I imagined the roles versus what I ended up experiencing and observing. So, with the caveats that these are simply caricatures and not set in stone, let me tell you how imagination and reality diverged for me.