Should I move into people management or stay an individual contributor?

[Kenneth_R]

I’ve been offered a promotion that would move me into a people management role, but I’m hesitant because I’ve always excelled as an individual contributor. I’m worried that my technical skills might stagnate and I’m not entirely sure my personality is suited for handling team conflicts and performance reviews. Has anyone else made this jump and regretted it, or found a way to balance the new responsibilities?

[HarperD]

I took the promotion last year and it felt like I was never touching code again. Meetings, review cycles, and budget chatter filled my days. We shipped some stuff but I felt I was losing the pace I used to love. I miss the craft sometimes.

[William96]

I kept a thread of tech in my role by carving out a weekly tech slot and giving myself a tiny project with a real tech owner. I mentored two juniors, ran a monthly code review session, and tracked a simple metric like story closers per sprint. It helped a bit.

[MilaVP]

Maybe the real problem is not the title but whether the team needs a strong mediator or a strong coder. I started to wonder if the conflict stuff is the real hurdle here. We spent months on one failing process and it did not feel worth it. Maybe you should check if the problem is the role or the team.

[Timothy79]

I did not take it but I asked for a short trial. I proposed to lead a small cross functional project for six weeks while staying an IC. The leaders gave me a chance and I learned a lot about how I operate under pressure.