I had the same choice. It was fun, educational and financially rewarding to make the switch, but I've found that becoming a Director has actually hurt my career options, and now I'm very unhappily unemployed. How did this happen?? As a manager I stopped programming. Which has resulted in me losing front-line skills that are needed for getting new work. And with some bad luck of losing my job in a company downsize, this has been a real problem. I'm older, wiser, and experienced at a lot of things, but companies aren't hiring Director positions very often. Companies are hiring junior level and senior level engineers, not Directors or managers. So I've been out of work for over two years!! Now, my problem is being unemployed too long, and not having recent programming experience, and being too "senior." I liked leading teams, but ironically it has made me less employable in a recession economy.
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I had the same choice. It was fun, educational and financially rewarding to make the switch, but I've found that becoming a Director has actually hurt my career options, and now I'm very unhappily unemployed. How did this happen?? As a manager I stopped programming. Which has resulted in me losing front-line skills that are needed for getting new work. And with some bad luck of losing my job in a company downsize, this has been a real problem. I'm older, wiser, and experienced at a lot of things, but companies aren't hiring Director positions very often. Companies are hiring junior level and senior level engineers, not Directors or managers. So I've been out of work for over two years!! Now, my problem is being unemployed too long, and not having recent programming experience, and being too "senior." I liked leading teams, but ironically it has made me less employable in a recession economy.