Is there a canonical "What can I do with my programming skills if I'm weary of heads-down coding?" question?
I think that's what the OP is really asking for in this question …
… and I think such a canonical-form question should exist here on programmers. A very similar question was asked on Workplaced and closed:
With this comment
Software Engineers should give you job options (other than programmers) such as: Business Analyst/Requirements Engineer, System Architect, Configuration/Build Manager, Project Manager, Test Engineer/Management, etc. Try looking for management jobs in IT, contractor/consultancy firms are big on this. Also, job fairs are a good place to start looking if you're still at the campus.
Based on the FAQ:
A good way to test this is to ask the question, "Would the answer to the question be materially different if a non-programmer answered it?" If no, the question should be closed as off-topic.
Here on Workplace they are asking for programmers to answer the question!
Which is kind of exactly my point. A single, canonical
What can I do with my programming skills if I'm weary of heads-down coding?
Question is, I think, something many programmers (not chefs, lawyers, or firemen) might ask themselves at some point in their lives. Such a question is valuable to, and entirely specific to, programmers.
it's concrete. There is data, there are facts:
- Either having programming skills is something that is typically in the hiring requirements for such positions, or it is not.
- Either there is a documented record of ex-programmers moving into these positions and being successful, or there is not.
- Either there are 100k such positions worldwide, or there are none.
it applies to "all programmers". The root skill is programming.
it has nothing to do with feelings or motivation. It's about skills, specifically programming skill, and how you use it. (Just not in the typical "heads down coding all the time" way.)
I looked around a bit and I couldn't find such a question, but I strongly believe it needs to exist -- at the very least you could close-as-dupe a bunch of soft career-development and career-transition questions with something nice and hard and concrete.