In my case I decided that I needed to balance my liking for the techie parts of the job and the managing parts. I was lucky enough to get a job that was in between and have a staff that really worked together.

I was able to go high enough in management to make a difference in what went on and still maintain the more interesting part of the job. My staff and I worked together and I also made sure that everyone was involved in what went on. By listening to their ideas and balancing them against mine I got a happy medium that, I think, satisfied all of us and yet the business benefited from the fact that if anything happened to one of us the others could keep things moving along the same path. That was an ideal situation and it worked well, but only because I had the right staff. If I had been stuck with a prima donna, it would have been a disaster.

As a result given the choice of staying a techie or going into pure management, I would stay a techie. Given my situation at the time with the right group, I would have considered moving up but only with that group.