there's an assumption that the ideal to strive for is to move up the chain into management as quickly as possible This may have been true at one time, but not

there's an assumption that the ideal to strive for is to move up the chain into management as quickly as possible This may have been true at one time, but not so much anymore, especially in IT. I prefer Michael Gerber's (of EMyth fame) description: there are three types of roles in a business, the entrepreneur, the manager, and the technician. If you run your own business, you better be all 3. But if you work for someone else, you can choose your path. Choosing the technician path is perfectly acceptable, and often preferable to the manager path. You get to focus on the critical path, do what you do best, and in many cases, earn more than your boss. Many programmers I know that made the switch to management are sorry they did; they miss the cool work and hate the meetings and bullshit. I made the switch back to technician. No one has ever questioned why.