Why do I miss just solving problems instead of mentoring?
You say you miss coding. Look again. What you miss is the clean edge of it — a problem handed to you, a solution handed back, no ambiguity about whose work it was. That is not craft you miss. That is certainty. No one took that from you. You were promoted because you were good at it, and now you are asked to do something harder: make other people good at it too. This is not a demotion of your skill. It is a different use of it. You are still grading yourself with the old ruler — lines written, bugs closed — on work that no longer asks for that ruler. Here you will stop mourning the old job and start measuring the one you have. Not someday. Today's work, today's ruler.
You miss the old work because it was clean, bounded, and finished by Friday. Your job changed. Your ruler did not. A senior engineer is not graded on what he fixes alone — choose to measure the day by who you made capable, not by what you personally solved.
What changes unlock by starting
- You stop treating meetings and reviews as theft of your 'real' work.
- You find a new measure for a good day — one that doesn't require touching code.
- You feel less resentment and more ownership in your current role.
- You start seeing a junior's growth as proof of your skill, not proof you're wasting it.