Currently working as a TPgM, thinking about trying to pivot to development, thoughts? /u/ZPro15 CSCQ protests reddit

I graduated college with my CS degree right before Covid hit and wasn’t really having any luck getting any positions in my area, not a huge amount of need for entry level developers at the time. I ended up working as a “technical specialist” adjacent to IT sales for a little while (1 year) before getting into an Associate TPM role which was pretty neat and I enjoyed a lot, focused mainly on making an IoT device and associated mobile app. Got to work very closely with engineers and designers and did a lot of great things. This company wasn’t a really a tech company and “had” to make some cuts so the Technology stuff was the first to go and I was unemployed. Got a new job after a few months and now have been working as a TPM 2 an HR software company, which has been a lot different than company one. Further away from engineering, consulted less on what is happening and primarily focused on product delivery more on the marketing/organizational side than the technical side. I do a good job and it pays the bills, but its not really ringing my bell and I’m getting a little tired of not having any chance to flex my engineering brain.

I’ve been having thoughts for maybe 2 years now about trying to pivot back into development work, I do for fun work making video games that probably won’t see the light of day but still pretty simple college level stuff, never really got out and worked at a company doing real software development/engineering. I’ve always come back to the conclusion that its probably not worth it, I’d set my career backwards, Id be working with 22 year olds or whatever and kinda stopped short of just applying to jobs. Is it worth it to put in some effort? Maybe learn a little but more and see what I can do, or am I better off just sticking to the daily grind.

Interested from hearing from developers/engineers who have opinions on Project/Program Manager types, or anyone that has made this transition. It seems to me its a lot more common to do this transition in reverse so I haven’t seen much.

I graduated college with my CS degree right before Covid hit and wasn’t really having any luck getting any positions in my area, not a huge amount of need for entry level developers at the time. I ended up working as a “technical specialist” adjacent to IT sales for a little while (1 year) before getting into an Associate TPM role which was pretty neat and I enjoyed a lot, focused mainly on making an IoT device and associated mobile app. Got to work very closely with engineers and designers and did a lot of great things. This company wasn’t a really a tech company and “had” to make some cuts so the Technology stuff was the first to go and I was unemployed. Got a new job after a few months and now have been working as a TPM 2 an HR software company, which has been a lot different than company one. Further away from engineering, consulted less on what is happening and primarily focused on product delivery more on the marketing/organizational side than the technical side. I do a good job and it pays the bills, but its not really ringing my bell and I’m getting a little tired of not having any chance to flex my engineering brain.

I’ve been having thoughts for maybe 2 years now about trying to pivot back into development work, I do for fun work making video games that probably won’t see the light of day but still pretty simple college level stuff, never really got out and worked at a company doing real software development/engineering. I’ve always come back to the conclusion that its probably not worth it, I’d set my career backwards, Id be working with 22 year olds or whatever and kinda stopped short of just applying to jobs. Is it worth it to put in some effort? Maybe learn a little but more and see what I can do, or am I better off just sticking to the daily grind.

Interested from hearing from developers/engineers who have opinions on Project/Program Manager types, or anyone that has made this transition. It seems to me its a lot more common to do this transition in reverse so I haven’t seen much.