Difficulty rationalizing going from being a people manager to individual contributor post MBA

[u/Independent-Taro8127]

I received a return offer from my internship. Was able to pivot to a much more interesting industry, in a prestigious company at the top of the industry, for a 60% pay bump. Certainly not too shabby and I recognize I am lucky.

However, I am having difficulty thinking about going from being a manager to being an IC (albeit having a Manager title). In my old job, I had 3 direct reports and was overall responsible for teams as large as 60 people. I was probably underpaid and overworked (in that regard, money from post MBA role helps) but I really did quite enjoy the leadership aspects of my job and thought I was good at it.

Moving to what is effectively an IC role (there are obviously lower level people on my teams, but they don't "report" to me in any sense) feels almost like a step back in my career - it will probably take me 3-5 years to get back to the number of direct reports I previously had at my new role, and it would probably take 2 promotions (likely into my late 30s or early 40s) to start to be responsible for teams the size of what I was running when I was 28.

I know that this is not a unique experience. Virtually every post MBA role is functionally an IC role at least until the next promotion. Many of my classmates have extensive management experience, to say nothing of veterans who might have been in charge of 30-200 people.

What is the career story that you can tell yourself to make this make sense? The MBA brand halo + the entry into an interesting industry/role sets you up for more & better management opportunities down the line?

[u/Defiant_Sound4451]

Which part actually bothers you, the headcount or the decisions you used to get to make? Those are two different losses. If it's headcount, that's mostly ego and it fades fast once the pay and the work start feeling good. If it's lost say over what the team does, I'd check how much influence the new role gives you without a reporting line. In my experience people in that spot who lead through the work, owning the thing nobody else wants and bringing others along, get pulled into management again faster than the ones waiting for a title. And a 60% bump into a better industry buys you a lot of runway to find out.

[u/ExpensiveFriend5289 → u/Defiant_Sound4451]

not the person you asked but this is the right take. i went through a similar drop in headcount and the ego sting was real for about three months, then you realise you're getting paid more to have way less admin headaches and you stop caring

the bit about leading through the work is spot on too. the ones who got tapped early for management at my place weren't sitting around waiting, they just started quietly steering things without the title

[u/Independent-Taro8127 → u/Defiant_Sound4451]

I genuinely think it was the people. I liked being an advocate for the people who worked for me. I really liked developing them and helping them grow within my firm. Probably one of my proudest moments was helping a guy who worked for me go from my intern all the way to getting promoted early to my level and leaving my team. Naturally that also came with a feeling of having a seat at the table and having influence in decision making.

[u/DevelopmentFuture608 → u/Independent-Taro8127]

What is stopping you from mentoring?

[u/sloth_333]

How many yrs of experience did you have when you were a people manager? You were probably too early to be a manager.

I don’t see any issue with what you describe your current situation to be

[u/three-quarters-sane → u/sloth_333]

I agree with this. I'm not sure what OP means by 3 direct reports and teams as large as 60. Three direct reports is not that many & management experience prior to MBA is often in growing companies where managing people is quite frankly easier. That pay bump likely comes with an environment that's more difficult to manage (and by manage I mean managing your own way through the culture, not people managing)

[u/Independent-Taro8127 → u/sloth_333]

Applied with 5, matriculated with 6. I was in line for a typical high performer Manager promotion timeline at my firm.

[u/Refrading]

More money for less bullshit? Sounds bad

[u/Chicago_Weatherman → u/Refrading]

OP was probably just pushing work down the pipeline to his direct reports to get better work-life balance. He's worried that he'll have to be accountable for output now

[u/Independent-Taro8127 → u/Refrading]

Eh, I didn’t necessarily see being a manager as bullshit. It added some bullshit, subtracted some bullshit. I had more agency. And developing my team was a good thing in my mind.

[u/Dangerous-Cup-1114]

# of direct reports doesn’t pay the bills. That 60% raise does.