Would I be hijacking this thread if I asked about career advice?
There's some old old career advice threads.
Anyways I'm going to hijack it and if I get banned for life oh well.
TL;DR - have opportunity to work for my old boss as he got promoted, I would take his old role. Wasn't crazy about his management style. Not sure I am ready for the opportunity. I am young and would be managing 11 people ranging from maybe 25 to 55 years old. In engineering you can go down the management path or the engineering path and idk which I really want.
Longer version
I work in engineering, I have been with the same company since I graduated college 9 years ago. Four years ago I worked for Bossman A who seriously opened up opportunities for me because he was a long term thinker and I was the executor. Bossman A got promoted, Bossman B became my boss reporting to Bossman A. Bossman B and I had a good relationship and we still do but his management was frustrating at times. Had to move heaven and hell to convince him to do things, bringing pace to a crawl, and felt like I could never execute what I really wanted to. The work was technology development, so think like prototypes.
I ultimately got a bit frustrated, wanted more ownership so I moved to being in charge of development projects with real deliverables, decisions and consequences (product as opposed to prototype) - kind of management-light.
This was around the time my relationship with my wife was going to shit and I just wanted to challenge myself, get uncomfortable. I am terrified of public speaking, low self esteem, etc but know I have good potential so that move was to force me to work on it.
Then COVID hit, my future ex wife got pregnant. Lot easier to be in charge of big meetings when its virtual. 2020 took a toll on my mental health for sure and 2021 probably won't be easier as we move towards separation. I am also a recovering alcoholic from 2020, shit got really bad months leading up to birth of my daughter.
The reason why I took my current role (responsibility, ownership) is slowly slipping away. It's complicated (actually due to Bossman A) but it wasn't due to my performance deficiencies. Getting that same feeling of disenfranchisement.
Anyways Bossman A got promoted to director, Bossman B got promoted, and Bossman B wants me to take his old job, so I would quite literally be responsible for executing the vision I wanted to a couple years ago.
This move was always something that was in the back of my mind - go get this product experience then come back as a manager having been on both sides of the equation. It just happened a lot quicker than I expected.
Also the group ballooned to 11 people with a recent re-org, and it's kind of a hodge podge of experience and age. I'm 32 but would be managing people anywhere from 25 to 50's. Again this isn't unheard of in engineering, some just want to be engineers for life and be able to drop work at 5pm. I would definitely be young for the role though.
This would also include likely presenting material directly to the CTO at times, the thought of which freaks me the fuck out. I have mild PTSD from bad presentations in the past. I don't mean to use the term lightly, my therapist said it, lol.
Luckily I have a good enough relationship with Bossman B so I can talk to him about all this, including the things I didn't like about his management style.
Believe it or not I've tried to trim this down like four times now.