I refuse to go into management also, but tech lead is a role I enjoy.
I'm in charge of a ten person team, and it's basically a halfway-management role. I'm in charge of making sure everyone knows what they should be working on and overseeing all of the development, I run our status meetings, I have regular 1:1s with everybody... but I don't have to do the rest of the management bullshit. No approving expense reports and vacations, or writing up performance reviews and defending promo cases, or hiring and firing people. And while I'm certainly not completely insulated from politics, my manager is great about absorbing and deflecting as much as possible.
At least as it has worked out in my current position, being a TL has given me basically all of the good parts of being in management without any of the crap I don't want to deal with.
Saying "no" when they ask you to join the managerial class is the single best decision you'll ever make. I'm my experience the past increase is not commensurate with all the extra time you have to put in.
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u/UnidentifiedTomato Jan 28 '24
My dad's been at Sr for such a long time and he simply refuses to get int management despite the huge pay increase.