[YZF]

I hate the term IC. Its often used in a semi-derogatory context.

Ah, I was wondering what was going on with my brain since I became a manager.

Seriously though, I've known some people who are managers and extremely fast/strong thinkers. Yes, the nature of the job requires more of the big picture and less of the details.

[acedTrex]

In what context is IC every used in any derogatory fashion? In my experience "Manager" or "People Leader" is far far more derogatory.

[YZF]

It implies the persons' leverage is limited to only what they personally do. That's obviously false. A non-manager engineer can have broad scope in putting in a proper architecture, in mentoring others, in cross-team communications. I would go as far as saying there's virtually no engineer whose impact is limited to themselves. They have a harder job since they need to affect change without having official authority to affect change.

The term's very existence it puts people in a certain bin. Why is a CEO not also an "individual contributor"? They're an individual. They contribute. It's just newspeak.

I've never thought of management positions in an organization to reflect something derogatory. But maybe to some.

[cutemonster]

What's a better word than IC? :-)