What should I be next?

I have been fortunate in life with employment. Up to this point, I have never been laid off or fired. Every position I have moved on from was my decision, no one else's. While I have worked for various sizes of organizations, currently I am working in a medium-sized corporate structure. One that has specialists in many of the roles, with plenty of room for generalists. Each role in the organization has a lane. A lane by which many abide, while others trek wherever they please.

Working in this environment leaves me with the book wide open to write my future, I think. Right? Now I am serving as a development team lead on a software development team. Two paths are logical next steps for this role. The first is engineering management. The second is software architecture. Both of these are fine roles in the organization. One carries the weight of N number of employees that report through you. The other carries the weight of X number of applications and Y number of projects. Is this the appropriate way to be thinking about these roles?

From the day I entered the software industry, I always wanted to be in the software architect role. They are the people all other technical people look up to. They are the people who have all the answers to the technical problems. Doesn't an engineering manager have the same appeal from a human perspective?

What about the availability of each role? There are more engineering manager positions than software architect positions. At least in the small sample, I have collected from job boards. The next logical steps after being an engineering manager could lead to the C-suite, CTO, CIO, and the like. That does sound quite appealing... Software architecture could also lead to those C-suite roles. Even then, do I belong in a C-suite? The amount of foul language I have used in my career leads me to believe maybe those may not be the right spots for me.

I still have no clue what path is ideal for me. Countless hours have been wasted trying to figure it all out. Each day we all get a little bit older. Each day we learn a little bit more. Rather than wasting time trying to figure out what should be next, I am now focusing on myself to fill my current position to the best of my ability. Moving the needle of progress each day, until the next opportunity appears. At that time I will know in my core whether or not to travel the path.