There's a story that Woz tells about how he was feeling as though he was being pushed in to management as Apple grew and the anxiety, etc., that caused him. Eve

There's a story that Woz tells about how he was feeling as though he was being pushed in to management as Apple grew and the anxiety, etc., that caused him. Eventually he realized (and/or someone pointed out) that he didn't have to follow the role changes and could remain in a hands-on engineering role. I've worked with a few people along the way who were senior enough and wise enough that they easily could have found themselves a management position if that's what they wanted. But they either had tried it and decided it wasn't for them, or they just knew they would be happier coding and maybe doing some mentoring of the junior staff. tl;dr: Transitioning to management may be the 'normal' career path, but why do it if it makes you unhappy?