Eng Manager here. At previous jobs I constantly had this assignment of "stop coding and only do code reviews". This to me is incredibly short-sighted as my code reviews are gonna be shit if I don't code.

Also managing a team of even 10 developers was the easiest job I ever had. Hire well, treat them well, talk with them routinely, solve conflicts, allow them to explore things.

The hard part of the job is of course functioning as a therapist for disorganised power-grabbing product people and shielding my team from their shenanigans. I'm so tired of it.

Every bad engineering manager I had two characteristics: they never have time to code but also never have to talk to me or any other employee.

If I ever get in that position, I want an assistant to do all the paperwork, so I'll have time to code and talk to people.