Lead/Manager vs Individual contributor which is better?

Posted by User11091981 on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by User11091981
Published on 2012-11-06T04:50:30Z Indexed on 2012/11/06 5:18 UTC
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career-development

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career-transition

Currently I am working in a company as a Manager (software dev). But I only have 6.8 yrs experience. I joined this company as a software engineer and got promoted to SSE, Lead and Manager. Some of my team members are having better experience than me, and I feel like I need to have more exposure/experience to take these roles. I feel like it is better to be an individual contributor learn many things for another couple of years and become a Principal Software Engineer, rather than involving in Management.

Options I have: 1. Ask my current employer to make me an individual contributor? 2. Find a new company and join as an SSE to start over? 3. Find a new company for a lead position?

Please advice.

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