[i_k_k]

Another problem is that much of the industry sees getting into management as a promotion.

This is something that Microsoft tried, at least, to get right: pay/rank was mostly divorced from job function.

[kevinventullo]

Facebook and Google also have parallel tracks up to very senior levels.

[disgruntledphd2]

I mean yeah, theoretically. It's nonsense though. Just count the number of individual contributors vs managers at a director level and it quickly becomes apparent that one of the parallel tracks is much, much larger than the other.

[lupire]

Not entirely fair, because most of those low/mid managers are active developers too.

What's stranger is that managers write more code than high level (not line level) "org tech leads" who sit in meetings all day.

[disgruntledphd2]

> Not entirely fair, because most of those low/mid managers are active developers too.

I dunno, certainly at IC5 (so I think IC4 now) level at FB, my manager was totally judged on the output of her team, and strongly discouraged from working on her own projects.

Meanwhile, at the same level as an IC, I was working on my own projects but mostly helping others accomplish theirs.