Brian LeesLate last year, I decided to step away from a Director of Engineering role for a Developer role. This decision came after many conversations and a lot of thought about what I wanted from my career going forward.
Many in technical leadership get the itch from time to time to go back to coding, but few actually go through with it. For me, it just felt like the right time. I have ambitions to strike out on my own someday, so getting back into the habit of writing code has been on my to-do list for years. However, life and work had not left much time lately to pursue that path.
The company I work for is undergoing a lot of changes, many of which are necessary for a growing company. But that means the job was changing, and it was helping to reinforce what kinds of roles I enjoy and at what team size.
Why not leave? That is a question I received several times. And it really comes down to this: the company has an amazing work-life balance. Plus, I have been here a long time. My reputation and abilities are well known. I know the products. I know the history. All of that takes time to rebuild when you jump to a new company. And ultimately, right now, my young kids and having time at home are my number 1 priority. So for those who have heard the analogy before, this feels like I am still on the right bus, I was just in the wrong seat.
So what now?
With the background out of the way, what am I doing now? And what is this blog?
I have had an itch for years to write and always felt like I had nothing to say. This blog nearly came into existence last year right after we had a layoff. I was going to write a few posts on my experience navigating layoff culture (and likely still will), but that got me really examining my career and ultimately was a catalyst for this change.
Since then, I have had lots of ideas on things to write and have been generating a backlog. So now feels like the right time.
Possible topics
To wrap up, here are some ideas I would like to potentially explore:
- I will be writing a lot about the things I am learning as I get back into the swing of being a full-time developer. In particular, I am interested in exploring different ways of teaching and learning.
- I have formed a lot of opinions over the years as a manager on things that I think contributors should be doing - I can now be my own test subject on some of those ideas.
- AI is obviously all over the place right now, I would like to start speculating on how it can and will change the developer role in the future.
- AI can also be a tool for democratizing the ability to write code and I would really like to explore those ideas as well.
- I am also deeply interested in strategy and imagine that will infuse a lot of my writing.