About 30 years ago, give or take, I made the conscious career-limiting decision to avoid becoming a manager. It’s not because I dislike managers. I’ve had good, bad, and indifferent managers, and I do have some definite opinions about what constitutes a good one. I just don’t want to be one myself, mainly because I don’t think I would be very good at it.

So, I was a bit surprised this morning to get a call from an internal recruiter for a large company who asked if I had any managerial experience.

I answered, “Yes, all bad.”

That  seemed to startle him a bit, so I continued to tell him that the fact that I had been promoted to a management position twice in my career (both times over my objection) was a key factor in quitting my job at both of those companies. One of the reasons I have generally preferred contracting to direct employment is that contractors are almost never asked to fill management positions.

He then came to the rather obvious conclusion that I would not be a good fit for the position he was trying to fill.

Yes, indeed.