Why do people who love programming/developing move to a management role other than for salary reasons? Is it just a feeling that you get at a point in your career?

Or because they r sick of nonsense deadlines and that everything is ultra super mega urgent and it's always an easy fix that takes no less than a week to implement but easy huh?

Or they no longer enjoy coding or as u said for salary

Because after years of constant deadlines, learning curves and project switching, management is a slower pace, not necessarily easier but slower, and a typical step up from being the dev.

Not all managers are equal, some... not all, will still get their hands dirty with dev work on a regular basis though.

Reasons being:

As a developer - there's just so much you can grow and newcommers will catch up to you and outperform you. This is just a common thing. Now, you have few options:
1. Continue working on dev side if the company supports it.
2. Move to a manager role with all your knowledge and be a good manager (not all are good but you get the point!)

So... It's just a next step in their carreer. With possibly a higher salary attached and less rushing to type code :)

@C0D4 that makes a lot of sense, I guess it's nice to just be relaxed at work. Thank you

@potata so its inevitable that you'll plateau and the next natural progression is management?

Who says management strictly excludes coding? You can be managing people and still be coding along.

@machopea Well, lets be fair - management is not for everyone. So no, it doesn't mean that you'll eventually be a manager. There's a chance that you'll get an offer for management position but - it's up to you eventually :)

@kamen bad managers still cling to their engineering days. A Manager should understand what the engineers are doing and coordinate them. If he still acts like an engineer then He half asses being an engineer and half asses being Manager. But that's just my personal experience

People who are talented: there's an advancement ceiling at most companies. Salary stagnation is career death

People who aren't: they eventually cant keep up, so they become another example of the Peter principle in action.

Technology is constantly shifting. I keep wondering if my learning rate 20 years from now will be as good as it used to be.

If you are familiar with typical project roadblocks, people management and such, you don't need learn at the same pace. These things are relatively constant. Even if zhings like Scrum drop from the sky every now and then.

But we all get older, so I wonder how switch to relying on experience rather than learning capabilities later in life.

Hence, possibly management.

I have explicitly rejected management opportunities at my current job. I think the philosophies and processes are beyond stupid. So, why would I take a position parroting those to those below me. Also, I have fewer meeting responsibilities as a Dev and more flexibility. The downside is the blatant age discrimination. For reference, I have been in a lower management role before at a different company for a short while and while the processes were better, the administrative part of the job is not my cup of tea.