Ask HN: Advice on EM journey next steps
The question I'm struggling with: what should I do next in my career?
The context: I'm in the midst of a minor career crisis. Not because I don't know what I want to do with my career, but because I'm paranoid about closing doors too early.
I've had a somewhat less traditional career arc to this point. I joined a FAANG company straight out of college as a software engineer. I found some success early and got promoted after a little over a year. I spent the following year as a SWE before role changing to a product manager because I wanted to be closer to customers. 2 years later I was promoted to a senior product manager and stayed in that role for another year before making the switch to an engineering manager. I was an EM for 1 year at the same FAANG company before switching companies to a series C startup for the last year where I've been EM for a team that grew from 2 to 10.
I've made the decision to leave my current company for various reasons and I'm grappling with what's next. I think I've had success in each role I've been in, but I realize I'm a strange candidate for EM roles even though it's the role I love and believe I'm best at. I've had recruiters tell me as much in the last two weeks. I've also had a hiring manager screen where the first question the HM asked me is "are you technical enough?" I've never received feedback that I'm not technical enough, but now I'm nervous.
My fear is that my odd job arc has eliminated me from most traditional EM roles that want (totally understandably) 6+ years of software engineering experience. What I'm grappling with now is whether I should take a hiatus from the EM role and try to return back to a software engineer role for a few years to build up that part of my resume OR whether I should keep forging ahead trying to find an EM role.
My hang up on pursuing a software engineering role (besides loving the EM role) is that my technical imposter syndrome is now through the roof. I've been away from hands on engineering for 5 years now and I'm fearful that I would fail on the job.
ALL of this to say: has anybody made the transition back to a software engineer after years away? And do people think I'm going close a lot of future doors if I don't bolster that part of my resume in the near term?
I welcome any and all advice.