Bullied into managing (again), how to stay on the IC technical track?

Find a company with >500 employees that has a principal engineer track. You’re probably joining companies that are too small and have no need for a super senior IC. You will have to deal with more politics though.

If you don’t like that, you can still resist and ask for “Senior” level responsibility but people will slowly lose respect for you as you get older. That’s how humans work: we want the older people to lead us with their experience.

How often are you telling the organization above you that you're not comfortable continuing on in your management role? If it's not very often, they may have forgotten about you. You may consider making this a talking point the next time you have a checkin with someone up the chain.

I don't think you need to threaten to quit, just remind them of the terms of your previous agreement. If that fails to get results, don't be afraid to take a two week vacation this July to remind them that you're not the long term manager of this team. It sounds like you may need a mental health break, anyway.

To prevent this from happening in the future, I'd suggest telling people that you'd be comfortable being the interim manager for, say, two months, and will also require semiweekly status updates about the progress on seeking a new manager. You may also wish to leave management experience off your resume.

You just actually quit if they refuse your hard 'no'. I was asked to be a team lead and turned it down as I know it's not right for me. I left my last company after they asked me to do a project in a similar way to an already disastrous one I was on previously. I said no, and left when it was clear that was the way they wanted the project done.

Don't threaten to quit. Line up another job, then quit without threatening.

The team should report to their skip manager until s/he hires a replacement manager. I would go talk with them and say “I didn’t fire him, you did, and I will have no choice but to resign unless you step up here”.

My friend you are me. You need to protect your managers better. I had this unfortunate situation 3 times in my career. Third time is the charm right?

Sometimes you get amazing manahers who may not be as informed as you and you don't think to grow their career. Instead of focusing on your task, find out what will make their manager value them more and accomplish that first. You need to be them and your own role, but only to the point where you can supplant their limitations.

As an IC you have to understand the reason people move to management in many cases is they are at their limits in a technical capacity so help them grow instead of forcing them to fend.

I used to ignore monthly sla reports because who cares but my manager was let go because our slas failed. He didn't understand how standard deviations work so I could have saved the job of a person who understood how to allow me to focus on the most important tasks.

I personally would threaten. Setting clear boundaries is important, “I’m unhappy in my current role and I’m looking for new opportunities. I’d love to find one at _this_ company but if we can’t work something out I may have to leave.”

I’ll admit though that I’m biased and my own team is currently looking for high-level ICs (senior and principal) who want to stay and grow in that role. If you (or any readers) are interested message tyler@recroom.com

I’m a high-level IC who used to manage a team of 12. Company was more than happy to let me do IC work, hired a manager of my choice to fill my previous role, _and_ promoted me with pay increase after the transition. I’d say my work is ~50% coding, ~25% architecture discussions, 12% mentoring, and 12% leadership meetings.

Management is an awful job yet it's also essential.

I made a post about this three years ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20532057) and unless you're very extroverted it sucks all the joy out of the field.

> How can I avoid being put in this situation again? I made it very clear I was not interested and wasn't really given any choice not to.

Like some others have said protect your manager, but I'd qualify that by saying provided they earn that protection and trust. Also, build a relationship where the manager is effectively working for you and then (eventually) with you.

You also have to ask yourself what sort of manager the company or the team needs. A people manager who can build connections with others and trusts (relies completely) on the team to work out the engineering? Or a technically-savvy manager, who can guide and mentor on the basics?

Not the easiest topic and these are not mutually exclusive, but depth in one usually means sacrificing the other.

Note: I'm the latter type and it's unfortunately an inhibitor to my own growth. Schmoozing is not something I can get comfortable with and soires like large company gatherings I just shut down (too much sensory input). But I'm loving how my team is growing and provide input on best practices, some architectural decisions (eventually I'll have to give this up), and technical evaluations.

I suggest you look at how people perceive your value. They obviously see you as being more valuable as being a manager than an IC.

I would look at how your 'brand' comes over and work on making sure people see the value you bring as an expert IC outweighs that of being a manager.

The more you increase your value as an IC the more costly it becomes to use you as a manager. Then you can look for a job that understands that.

I hope this helps

I would certainly leave again - I'm really surprised that this happened to you twice, but any reasonable company would respect your wishes rather than forcing you into a role you never asked to do. It doesn't sound like you did anything wrong based on your description of the events.

Some companies do provide a technical track in which you can become a Principal Engineer with no management responsibility. But if you have experience in solving problems, you may be good as a mentor/coach to other devs.

The longer term solution to this problem may be technical consulting.

Well do for others what others did for you, you had a manager that looked out for you and let you be happy as an IC. I suffer for others as others suffered for me, make the beauty of staying as you were your gift to your team. Because that's the thing, a lot of people have terrible bosses because better people don't want to be bosses, they don't step up. Now you can step up, and derive enjoyment from helping those ICs enjoy the happiness you wanted for yourself. And BE that umbrella for them, bear that burden, as those before you did for you.

You could be a great manager.

> Well, eventually they didn't succeed at hiring a manager and designated me

A sufficiently senior IC should help interview and attract management talent into a company. You need to consider it part of your job to hire a manager to take the ICs who get assigned to you.

I get the sense you're grey haired, and people look at you as a management option based on age and experience. Again, treat it as a core responsibility to help hire managers.

You just quit. This isn't a company you want to work for. Find a manager/employer that cares about their people. It's hard, but they do exist.

You could just always stop doing your managerial duties and focus on IC. They can't actually physically force what tasks you work on. Now, they may fire you, but let's be honest, in this situation that might actually be a good thing for you, right? Because then you can go find another role that fits your proclivities better.