Ask HN: CTO contemplating returning to developer role – seeking advice

I've been grappling with a significant career decision, and I could use your insights and advice. I'm currently serving as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at a tech company, but I've been seriously considering a move back into a hands-on developer role. However, my apprehension stems from the fact that I've spent the last six years primarily focused on leadership and management rather than coding.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has experienced a similar career transition, or from developers who have worked with CTOs who made the switch back to coding. How did you navigate this transition, and what were the challenges you faced?

Here are a few specific questions I have in mind:

    Skill Gap: I'm concerned about the gap in my coding skills. How can I efficiently catch up on the latest technologies and best practices after being away from the keyboard for six years? I've worked mostly with C# and .net, but I do have some experience with JavaScript.

    Balancing Act: How can I balance my current leadership responsibilities with the goal of transitioning back to a developer role? Any advice on time management and setting realistic expectations?

    Company Culture: For those who've been in a similar situation, how did your team and organization react to your decision? Were there any issues or concerns that arose during the transition?

    Personal Satisfaction: Ultimately, what has been your experience in terms of personal job satisfaction and fulfillment after making a similar switch? Do you regret the decision, or are you content with your new role?

I'm really torn about this decision and would greatly appreciate any advice, anecdotes, or insights you can provide. I understand that individual experiences can vary, but hearing from the HN community would be invaluable in helping me make an informed choice.

Both, personal as I have a child now and I want to spent more time with her and be more present. On the other hand, I'm rethinking my career choices as I'm not sure that my actions as a CTO are as impactful as I would like to be. When I was a developer or even as EM my actions seemed more relevant.

You may want to consider being hands on for a week or two in your current company. Best way would be to start a hackathon within the company or participate in outside hackathon, build something that can be useful to the company is some different tangent. Don’t just build features but something on a tangential lines or something that your team can use as a fun project.

After two weeks, you’ll likely work on it to complete the project. You can later decide if you like this more.

Few things to note with transition comes different pay scale. You may have less say in overall direction or even the best practices and standards.

I had transitioned from leading teams to IC role and had observed these things, so I can only imagine it for being a CTO to a contributor.

how is that, being a manager but then still have to code and deliver? you have to constantly switch?

I did something similar to this last year. Went from site Engineering manager at a multi-national aerospace company to IC role and don’t regret it.

I did resign, and started in a software architect role at a smaller company. Did that for a bit and then moved to become their lead data scientist.

I was in the eng. management role for nearly 10 years but kept my skills relevant by working on lots of side projects.

Trying to manage a team remotely through lockdown and the never ending dance of aerospace mergers and acquisitions followed by the inevitable reorganisation was largely what prompted the change.