I've flip flopped between engineer and manager three times already. I'm quite aware that this is not an unusual thing to do. There's a heap of flip floppers out there! At Atlassian I'm in a new managers group. Interestingly there are many managers in the group that have previously been managers but joined Atlassian as an engineer.
So what's wrong with us? Why do we keep changing our role? Is it boredom? Are we crazy? I think there's actually method to the madness. Each time we make a change it's intentional and there's a purpose, and whilst some say it can hurt your career, I'd like to take you on a journey to explore why flip floppers are a very valuable breed!