I agree you and say that I would like to work as an engineer for maybe 6-7 years and then move up to a managing role. I have always seen myself as some sort of manager and I think that it would be a good fit for me personally. I want to work as an engineer for quite some time because I really want to be able to understand that processes and techniques that engineers have and possess. This in turn would only make me a better manager. The best managers are those that have been in their employees shoes. This past summer, my manager worked as a frontline employee in the department that she now manages. The team has such a great communication between any issues and conveying them to her. This is because she has worked there before and she has experience in what her employees are doing. I think that this transition would be ideal for any manager to take. There would be great communication upstream to management. I’ve heard from a number of people who have managers that have no experience in engineering and communication is terrible. The manager has no clue what their employees are talking about because the manager does not have the technical skills.