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Discussion on: If you mostly write code for your day-to-day, do you have plans to get promoted out of that situation?

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

Better question: do you even want to? It saddens me when 'writing code' is treated as a stepping stone to management or operations. Development is its own fully qualified career path. Like @Same Ringleman states stated "I dont want to be promoted". Why is moving away from 'coding' considered a move 'up'? This is totally not right. :MAN:agement keeping us down!

"People who have a responsibility in the software development process and who do not write code are useless to me." - @Michiel Hendriks

Never stop writing, never stop growing. The minute you move away from writing code daily, you start dying inside.

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Shauna Gordon

This was my thought.

Moving to management is not a promotion, it's a lateral career change. The two require vastly different skill sets.

Likewise, moving from management to coding isn't a demotion, either.

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david_j_eddy profile image
David J Eddy

110% agree... now to make that a reality...

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shaunagordon profile image
Shauna Gordon

Viewing management vs individual contributor as parallel tracks (vs promotion/demotion) is fundamentally a cultural thing.

In other words, you can make it a reality by treating it as a reality. :)

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Sam Ringleman

Thanks for the shout out!

I agree with this so much. I don't wan't to stop coding, because I don't want to stop learning. Not that learning other skillsets are not important, they are just not my top priority. I chose this craft because it is my passion and I am good at it. I did not choose this path so I could wind up in management.

Give me more responsibility by letting me design and build large effective systems. I am a team player through and through, in fact I love my teammates. I have made some of the best friends I have ever had in this industry! But I don't want to manage them. I want to learn and build with them.