[JoshTriplett]

> Once you get to a certain size of company, you have the normal career path of (entry level functional job) > manager > director > vice president.

It bothers me that that's considered a "normal" career path. The skills that make someone a good engineer/architect/etc do not necessarily make them a good manager or VP; even if they do end up doing well in a management role, they're then not actually using most of their technical skills. To me, it's a sign of a dysfunctional company if there's no technical advancement path.

Job titles tend to vary more in technical roles, but at least within the computing field, there's a normal career path that goes roughly engineer -> architect/lead/etc -> principal/distinguished engineer -> fellow. There are often several levels within each of those ("senior", etc), and smaller companies may omit the pre-fellow stage (the name of which tends to vary). For many companies, a quick search will turn up what set of titles they use for the top few tiers.

I would hope that isn't unique to software engineering, and that other fields have the concept of advancing within that field without becoming a manager.