Getting back into Software Development

Question

This may be a personal subject because it has more to do with MY issues, MY views, and MY opinions. Nonetheless, it is confides within the software development world concerning career.

The back-story is, ever since before collage I chose a career path in software development. I’ve played a lot of different roles in software development, including developer, architect, project manager and now quality assurance. When I was a developer, effort and result to me personally ran neck and neck, if I give it more effort, I'd get more results. Finding solution to problems was rewarding. But I had to create a flow or get “in the zone” in order to be most productive. I eventually moved on to become a junior project manager (under supervision of a senior manager) because working on 4 projects at a time meant a lot of coordination and self management more than programming.

When I moved to an end-user company, where the industry of the company is non-IT, things changed drastically. I no longer touch source code. I coordinate projects and I am part of the quality assurance team. The projects would be acquisition projects because we outsource almost all our projects. Frankly, coordinating projects or managing them doesn’t seem right to me. Although project management is exciting and challenging, I feel that there is an empty hole. When I go home to work on my software product that hole seems to be complete.

I know what I must do to complete myself but my question is this. When choosing a career-path, should I go back to being a developer or not?

My friend’s answer: “You should stay in project management because it’s a whole new subject and it is very challenging and dynamic. Besides, you already know how to develop software; you can do it with almost zero effort. Developing software at home could be an outlet, a hobby.”

It is a hobby, but why not make that hobby a career?

I don’t know whether to agree with my friend or to just step back into the software development industry.

What would you do?

1. If you’re a non-IT professional (development as strictly a hobby) would you build a career in software development? If not, would you sell your development skills for a paycheck?
2. If you’re an IT professional (develop software for a living) do you have a desire in project management? If so, what’s stopping you from building that career?

Answer 1

Do what you love. You're only getting one shot. Don't stuff it up to the point where you're unhappy on your death bed with the way things turned out.

I tried project management. I was adequate at it but never really happy. Now that I'm back in a tech role, I'm much happier, much better at it, and my wife doesn't have to put up with my complaints every night :-)

Answer 2

Taking into account that this is a site for programmers, and thus the majority of readers here (stackers?) are predominantly predisposed to a preference for coding, I would definitely say to do what makes you happy. You're spending a majority of waking hours at work, no reason not to be enjoying it. Work should be productive, not make you feel like it's not right.
Then again, I'm still trying to shift back to development (from a pure consulting role)... But you should realize that it won't be so simple. Your work habits have most probably changed to a management style (e.g. running 4 projects in parallel), and you might be a bit rusty....
I think the trick is to find the right development role. I, for one, think that it may be appropriate to look for a senior-type role, such as technical architect, maybe CTO for a startup, or even senior team lead / individual contributor (in software companies that support this concept). That will on the one hand let you ease back into a developer mindset, but also let you leverage your current "manager" skillset, and on the other hand let you be technical and get your hands clean (I dont like calling coding "getting your hands dirty" :-) ).

Answer 3

I'm an IT professional with no desire to take on official project management duties. Unofficially, there are a few things that I do that fall under project management, to some extent possibly quite minor, in my view:

1) Work estimates and sprint planning. While this may not be viewed as traditional project management, it is like a managing a micro-project where we as a team come together to do this.

2) Self-management. What do I work on today? How am I bringing the project one step closer to being done well.

3) Communication of future roadblocks. What things do I want to bring up in standup? If I wanted to shout "Fire!" where is the smoke coming from that I want to say, "We need to deal with this, NOW PEOPLE!" This is a use of self in calling attention to something. I haven't done this often but I do see this as a possibly useful thing to know.