Tech Boom: Management path much easier to climb and IC ladder is a myth/mirage
At higher end, It is becoming clear to me every day that people who remained Staff engineers in Tech are getting short changed in Bay Area everyday. TL;DR Summary - If you are a 5 year experienced engineer at a good company, get into manager role as soon a possible even at Tier 2/Tier 3 company(i.e. take a step or two down in tiers) instead of looking for an engineer role. However this may have been possible only due to tech boom and your results may vary. 1)Management TC has grown up 2-3 times 2) Management roles have grown 2-3 times in number due to tech boom. 3) L5->L6->L7 as an IC is much harder/has ben made much harder to climb in Tech companies whereas everyone 2 years in one level has been pushed to next level in Management. 4)While engineers have to do increasing leetcode bar with increasing age, management path was able to bypass this easily ; I see so many Cognizant|Infosys|HCL->PayPal->Amazon->Google management path hires. I doubt they would have been able to rise in Technical path. 5)The typical path is ->Manager at Body shop consulting firm->Director at Tier 2/Tier 3 companies->Director|Sr.Director at Amazon(PIP a few people here)->Director/Sr.Manager at Google(L7/L8). ; Everywhere spend couple of years. 5) Someone in Technical path is stagnating at 400-600K whereas management path is going to 1.5 million with ( see recent blind posts on this) Corollary 2:- In a Tech boom, holding a Tech management role is like holding a Call Option, whereas being an equivalent IC role is at best holding RSU ( sometimes even like holding a PUT option - since the leetcode barrier makes you harder to move up ) #tech #amazon #amazonaws #google #apple
I am not a good actor or liar. I can never be a manager
This has long been known by tech workers, some people just hate managing and meetings and prefer the IC life. If all you care about is the rat race, ladder climbing, and TC then go for the management path. Some people are happy to just do good work and get paid reasonably well for it.
This. It’s a different job, at the end of the day, being an IC with TC $300k+ may provide more happiness than being a manager with TC $500k+
I know. But the widening gap makes me question the myth that surrounds dual career tracks as advertised.
TC? Level?
What does that mean? Why don't you tell your perspective and add to discussion rather than calling names.
Management doesn’t need more people there just for the money (and perceived power). If you won’t be enthusiastic and motivated to foster the career paths of your teams, steer clear please. The Peter Principle lives on but doesn’t have to.
Only become a manager if you sincerely want your job to be helping other people. Otherwise you won’t be happy (and neither will those around you.)
I know many people who hate to deal with people management and budgeting and all that and are much happier staying at IC roles. If you are good at what you do as an IC you can get some pretty decent TC actually as principal/distinguished engineer which doesn’t require much LC for interview since your scope will be mostly system design/architecture/mentoring/leading (though these positions are fewer). Anyway, not everyone likes to be a manager
That is all fine. But why such a pay difference was the concern and that people dealing with non-engineering stuff have such huge pays when it should have been the other way around
L7+ manager roles are an order of magnitude in number more than L7+ IC roles. Also you can get by to manager roles in Google without knowing who Jeff Dean is :( - see https://www.teamblind.com/post/Google-Eng-L8-Director-offer-iFfQrXey !!!
Hiring sdes to work under you is getting harder in the market, not every manager will be able to hire a lot of people under them. Many managers will be left without reports in the current environment leading to a weird choice of 1. Move back to ic role 2. Lose your job.
Not true for Directors at Amazon and Google. You are seriously under estimating both their staying power and how many people want to get into a tech swe job at Amazon.
Keep this dynamic in mind if you ever get the feeling that everyone in your management chain is a moron.
Incoming hate in 3..2..1