It's my first senior management position, having been heavily code focused the last 12 years, with some small management as a senior/lead.

For my entire career I feel as though I've been working towards being the CTO and now I'm here I find it's not at all what I expected. It seems to be mostly about dealing with everyone's crap, trying to fight fires and constantly battling with the other managers and tech team to get things done. I haven't even written a line of code in months.

Over the past few years I've had a few gaps in my career where I have started my own business and been fully in charge of things. Those times were amazing although I never reached any level of sustainability. I thought perhaps being CTO in a startup would give me some of that same ownership, control and enjoyment but it just feels like another job. I actually feel a bit depressed by the whole thing which is a new sensation for me and my personality.

Am I expecting too much? Is it simply another job? What can I do to fix this or should I leave and get back to a coding job?

I'd love to hear from people with similar experiences!

PS. Sorry for the throwaway account but my main account has too much personal info for this topic!