This week’s question comes from
Aleksa:
How much time do you spend coding each day?
While it’s a personal question, I’d like to take it a bit more general. The more senior you become, the more time you’ll spend on non-coding tasks.
It depends on whether you want to grow on the IC (Individual Contributor) track or towards the team manager instead. The latter will naturally make you focus on non-coding tasks more.
Personally, I’ve been moving away from team-manager tasks. I missed coding, so I remained happy in my day-to-day job by asking for code-related tasks. While it’s hard to put a number to it, I’m confident to say I’m spending the majority of my time coding.
Yet, to me, coding is not only about writing actual lines of code. You need to plan your work, spec out all outcomes, and finalize by opening a PR with a clear description. Those are all tasks that relate to coding and won’t be tasks you’ll do if you focus more on team management.
If you’re worried about your situation since you’re coding less than before, start by asking yourself the question of where you want to go. If you become more experienced and interested in non-coding tasks, it’s all great! But if you’re actually starting to miss hands-on coding, it might be time to talk with your manager about your role in the team.
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