Did I waste my career giving up engineering to lead people?
You left the work you loved — the code, the design, the craft of building things with your own hands. In its place you took on the growth of other engineers. Years have passed. Now you sit with a strange grief: you miss the engineer you used to be, and you wonder if the trade was foolish. This is not weakness. It is honest. But notice the trap in the question 'was it worth it.' That question looks backward, to a choice already made, and demands you either defend it or condemn it. Neither helps you. The years spent are not yours to spend again. What is yours to spend is today. You can mourn the old craft and still ask what you will do with the skill you have now — the skill of shaping other builders. That is not comfort talk. It is the only ground left to stand on.
You did not waste it. You chose one craft over another — engineering people instead of engineering systems. The grief is real, but it is not evidence you chose wrong. Stop asking whether it was worth it. Ask what you will build today with the skill you now have.
What changes unlock by starting
- You stop asking 'was it worth it' and start asking 'what now.'
- You can name, concretely, what your old craft still gives you.
- You separate grief for lost work from doubt about your choice.
- You find one small, real way each week to touch the craft you miss.