After six years as a Team Lead, I've come to a controversial conclusion: for most senior developers, transitioning to a Team Lead position is a career trap. This isn't about incompetence or inability to handle responsibilities. The problem lies in the systemic flaws of this role in modern companies. The Scapegoat Paradox: Responsibility Without Authority The main problem I didn't grasp immediately: as a Team Lead, you're held accountable for results you have minimal ability to influence. You're expected to achieve goals through "leadership" — an abstract term that's supposed to magically compensate for the lack of actual management tools. What you're responsible for: What you're responsible for: Team results and productivity Meeting deadlines and quality standards Team motivation and retention Technical decisions and their consequences Stakeholder communication Team results and productivity Meeting deadlines and quality standards Team motivation and retention Technical decisions and their consequences Stakeholder communication What you DON'T control: What you DON'T control: Hiring: Final decisions rest with HR and upper management Firing: The process stretches for months Salaries: Budget is determined three levels above you Priorities: Product manager decides what's important Resources: You work with what you're given, not what you need Hiring: Final decisions rest with HR and upper management Firing: The process stretches for months Salaries: Budget is determined three levels above you Priorities: Product manager decides what's important Resources: You work with what you're given, not what you need From my experience: A developer was performing poorly, but the termination process dragged on for months. While all the approvals and performance improvement plans were being processed, the team suffered from constantly having to cover for them. Yet when deadlines slipped, the responsibility fell on the Team Lead, not on those who delayed the personnel decision. The Chameleon Role: Everything and Nothing Simultaneously Unlike a developer with clear responsibilities — write code, pass reviews, complete tasks — a Team Lead becomes a universal soldier. The set of duties changes dramatically from company to company, but one thing remains constant: you must manage everything. In one company you might be deploying releases to production, in another conducting interviews, in a third writing code alongside the team. Meanwhile, one-on-ones, task estimations, retrospectives, groomings, and planning sessions are mandatory everywhere. Add constant communication with other teams, API coordination, releases, integrations. There were days when I'd remember at 2-3 PM that I hadn't eaten breakfast — that's how consuming this whirlwind of context switching becomes. Start the morning working on one issue, immediately switch to a call, then someone comes with a problem, then an urgent incident, and so it goes until evening. Multitasking becomes your curse. You develop only one skill — the ability to quickly switch between contexts, but never achieve depth in any of them. Particularly amusing are companies looking for a "player-coach" — a Team Lead with 60% coding time. What planet are these people from? After all mandatory activities, you're left with a couple of hours for code at best, and those are fragmented between meetings. Technical Skills Degradation: Road to Nowhere The longer you're in a Team Lead position, the more your programming skills atrophy. Practice decreases, management increases. The development world doesn't stand still — new approaches, libraries, frameworks appear. And you're stuck at the level you knew several years ago. Many will say: "Study in the evenings." Seriously? After a day packed with meetings and solving team problems, I want to spend time with family, watch a movie, pursue hobbies. I have a personal life, and I'm not willing to sacrifice it to compensate for the role's shortcomings. The most unpleasant discovery awaits when you decide to change jobs. While you were managing, the market moved forward. Developer interviews focus on hard skills — algorithms, system design, current technologies. After several years of team leadership, you simply won't pass an interview even for a regular senior position without serious preparation. The Financial Illusion "But what about the salary increase?" you might ask. Here's the interesting part. A Team Lead position typically provides a 10-15% increase, rarely 20%, over a senior's salary. Meanwhile, seniors moving between companies can increase their income by 20-30%, not the standard 5-10% annual performance review raises. You get stuck in one place because finding a Team Lead position at another company is harder — there are simply fewer of them in the market. And returning to a senior position means a salary cut and the need to prove technical skills you've partially lost. Who This Might Suit (Spoiler: Almost No One) There are categories of people for whom the Team Lead role might make sense: Future startup founders. If you're planning to launch your own project, Team Lead experience will teach you how to work with a team when resources are scarce but results are needed. Only in your own startup will you have all the management levers missing in corporations. Future startup founders. Those wanting to move into pure management. If your goal is to become a Development Director or CTO in a large company, team leadership is a mandatory step. Just understand it's a one-way ticket away from coding. Those wanting to move into pure management. Seniors burned out on coding. If you've programmed everything you wanted, are tired of code, and want to share experience and mentor juniors — team leadership might be an outlet. You'll do technical leadership, help the team grow, but barely write code yourself. For some, this is a natural career evolution after 10-15 years of development. Seniors burned out on coding. People with strong soft skills. If you genuinely enjoy talking to people more than writing code, if you get satisfaction from conflict resolution and process building — this might be your path. People with strong soft skills. Temporary experience. It's worth trying to understand how things work "from the other side." A year or two as a Team Lead will provide valuable experience. The key is knowing when to stop. Temporary experience. The Bottom Line I'm not demonizing the Team Lead role. I'm talking about a systemic problem: companies want someone responsible for everything without giving them management tools. This benefits the business — there's someone to blame without sharing power and resources. After six years, I realized: a Team Lead in modern reality is a scapegoat with a fancy title. If you're a senior thinking about transitioning to Team Lead, think three times. Perhaps it's better to grow toward Staff or Principal Engineer, dive deeper into architecture, or specialize in a narrow technical area. And if you do decide to take the leap, remember: this isn't about growth, it's about changing professions. And there's no guarantee you'll like the new profession.
