[nico]

It’s my impression, as an engineer, and as expressed in other comments here, that a lot of (most?) engineers rather be doing/making things rather than managing people/processes/politics

I wonder if it’s difficult for companies to find VPs of engineering, staff engineers and engineering managers

[mp05]

I've been a developer for 15 or so years and while I love to build, it's difficult to do anything meaningful in a vacuum. I've also been slowly chipping away at pre-engineering curriculum for the past 10 or so. Once I realized I have a knack for managing developers and I finished an AS, I went back to school for industrial /management systems engineering and haven't looked back. Now I get to architect big projects at a high-level and guide a team of very specialized people who are better coders than I could ever be... but I still get to dirty my hands quite often.

I definitely dread having to do PR reviews sometimes but it's really fulfilling and if that's rare, then that's great for my income potential right?

[janpieterz]

Good ones, that deeply understand a technical subject and complexities, but are also great at the other aspects, are pretty hard to find.