In my job and past few years, I've written a lot of code and on the whole enjoy it. I am pretty competent at developing and like learning about things. Technically my job position is in engineering, manufacturing engineering to be specific.
The problem is - I don't love the actual work of programming. I like it just fine. I'm good at it. But I don't love it. But I really want what I perceive to be the benefits of it as fits an MMM lifestyle. Considerably higher flexibility in terms of location, hours, and overall career movement.
However, I am good at and actually love the people's side of work much more. I constantly am pondering psychology, how people are motivated, how to manage, how to manage/lead projects, how to facilitate meetings, etc - this is something I love doing. I do this for fun all the time. Understanding the business/people side simply is something I love doing. Especially since I can wield my technical background in this environment as an incredibly powerful career building asset. Project management is definitely the types of things I do naturally and find myself drawn towards. But it doesn't feel like it has as much MMM lifestyle support longer term.
This seems inexplicable to me, but I feel myself desiring the development types of positions I would enjoy/succeed in but primarily because of the non-work related benefits (which aren't necessarily as real as I might hope, anyways). It seems really obvious to me what I love doing and up until this point actually enjoy working at is what I should pursue from a career perspective but for some reason I just feel this compelling, "development is better" perspective.
Any perspective would be appreciated, this sort of thing makes me feel ridiculously absurd for wondering about... can a less technical job be as supportive of a MMM lifestyle? Either fewer hours or working remote? Or am I just crazy.