Managerial roles and how to enter them?

Question

A lot of what gets mentioned when people ask "I don't want to be a developer anymore, what are my options" are managerial and other business type roles. The biggest that comes to mind is project manager, but I'm curous if there are other roles like that that pay better than an IC role at an average corporation and what you need (education, skills, something else?) to break into them. I'm about convinced I wont be able to drive my career as an IC in a direction I want in any useful amount of time and have begun wondering if I should judt suck it up and try to move into a decent paying business roles after X more years of my current job. I probably have a good amount of time before I make any transition like that, however. I dont have any formal education though, so I'm worried about my limits here.

muzani · Accepted Answer

I would recommend practicing leadership skills. The safest way to do this is gaming - play a team based game or sport and lead the team under pressure. MMOs are great, MOBAs are great, fast paced shooters too. If you have a family, lead your children, rather than the typical method of yelling at them or bribing them.
At your workplace however, you should be leading upwards. Instead of waiting for your boss to tell you what to do, find out what the company wants and needs and find a way to get there. When there's a problem, offer a suggestion. Be the first to tackle a problem, instead of waiting for someone else to.
Like many jobs, it's not certain when a manager post opens. A team might make do with less managers than they need, or hire one manager more than they need at times. Some people get locked into a "team lead" role rather than a management one. If you prove yourself ready for a higher post, they might just create one for you and put you in it.

leff_f · Answer

The growth into managerial roles happens kind of naturally, take more responsibility - become a team lead, take even more responsibility become some sort of manager. It has less to do with knowledge or diplomas more with the desire to take responsibility to be a leader and take responsibility for the others. The only limit here is the amount of responsibility you can handle.