| > I think most people on here (but sadly few company structures) would agree that engineering and engineering management are two nearly orthogonal skillsets, but for some reason we insist on "promoting" people who are good at the former into positions that require the latter. I don't think they're orthogonal skillsets. A major part of management (arguably the most important part) is helping your team improve their skills, which works much better if you're a skilled engineer yourself. > I would basically worry about stunting my development as an engineer if I switched to focusing on management, and I'm not even convinced my role models for career development are really in primarily "managerial" roles (I'm thinking of both famously very good backend devs both at my company and at the big SV companies). Yes, becoming a manager will stunt your growth as a developer. > Separately, I have relatively little interest in being in a role where my output is judged as the output of a team of people who aren't me. I get that that's the best way to judge managers, and that managers do very valuable intangible things in unblocking their team, but I'm skeptical that I'd be able to feel satisfied by this. You probably wouldn't enjoy managing then. > I write all these things, because it really seems like a foregone conclusion of both this article and the industry as a whole that an engineer will eventually become a manager. Is that what I most likely have to look forward to in my career if I wind up working at the well-established/mature companies? Definitely not. Most big companies have separate technical and management tracks, and most developers shouldn't go into management. > Can someone explain to me why I should want to become good at management? The major reasons to become a manager are: (1) you can have a much greater impact on the business as an Xth percentile manager than an Xth percentile engineer, or even an (X-20)th percentile manager; (2) you enjoy teaching and watching people grow; (3) you're more interested in causing good software to happen than you are in building it personally. |
Only reason I’m in a half technical role instead of still in SW dev track is my company and the industry in my location does not generally have good career paths while staying an IC, so for sake of my family I’m doing this for the doubled pay check to put us into financial independence.
But I’d much rather be coding.