People make mistakes. Sometimes you can learn from them. A few questions to consider: - Did you talk to people who were product managers or program managers, a

People make mistakes. Sometimes you can learn from them. A few questions to consider: - Did you talk to people who were product managers or program managers, and learn more about the role, prior to taking that leap? If not, this might have helped you realize that you wouldn't have enjoyed the role - Did you do research on the future career paths for managers? This might have helped you realize what opportunities you were passing up on - Did you do research on the average compensation for managers/directors/PMs? If compensation is important to you, this is definitely something to plan ahead If you did all of the above, and things still didn't work out, just accept that you made the best decision you could have with the information you had at the time. That's all any of us can hope for. And mistakes are bound to happen despite that. Regardless of whether or not the mistake was preventable, it's done and it's in the past. Learn what you can from the past, and then focus on the present. If being a manager or director means that much to you, pivot your career back towards the management track. Yes, you will feel frustrated that you "wasted" the last few years in other unrelated roles. But don't let sunk cost fallacy rob you of the best decision you can make today.