“I moved into management in 2020, and the thing that keeps me in engineering long term is staying a part-time engineer: a few hours a week of real coding keeps my credibility with the team and my judgment sharp. The managers I see burn out are the ones who let go of the craft entirely and become professional meeting attendants.”

“I spent years as an IC before moving into management, and the thing that keeps people in engineering long term is usually the same thing that makes them good managers: a genuine appetite for the work itself. If you stop coding because you think management is the only growth path, you often end up with the worst of both worlds.”

“I stayed hands-on for years after becoming a manager, but the real cost was pretending I could still be the best IC in the room while also building the team. I had to let go of the identity tied to my own commits and find the leverage in making other people better.”

“I stayed in engineering management for years because I thought scale meant people, but at Trendyol I watched AI change what one builder could ship, and I now think the long-term bet is on leverage, not headcount. If you still love the craft, the IC path has more runway than the org chart suggests.”

“The only way I've stayed useful as a manager is by staying close to the actual work: code reviews, architecture discussions, and the day-to-day shifts AI is forcing on teams. Once you lose that thread, you start making decisions from a distance, and engineers can smell it.”

“I stayed in engineering leadership by accepting that the skills that got me promoted would eventually cap me. Technical skill gets you in the room; kindness, clarity, and coaching are what keep you there over a decade.”

“I stayed in engineering leadership for more than 20 years, across Cisco, Scientific Atlanta, and NCR, and the only thing that kept me in it was the people I was growing. The work changes, the companies change, but if you stop finding meaning in the humans around you, the title won't save you from burnout.”

“I burned a lot of weekends early on proving I could still out-code my team, and the cost was missing the moment where my real job became building the room around them. Staying in engineering long-term means accepting that your craft shifts from the commit to the conditions that let other people commit well.”

“I spent most of my career managing engineers, and the best managers I knew stayed close to the craft even as their scope grew. After years away from code, I went back to building with AI and realized the job is becoming less about people management and more about directing systems.”