the original comment said "you'll watch them rise further and futher in the company hierarchy while you're enjoying your "parallel track"", and the comment i re

the original comment said "you'll watch them rise further and futher in the company hierarchy while you're enjoying your "parallel track"", and the comment i replied to disagreed. the question was about "parallel track", and i don't see how you can conclude that they're parallel: it seems to me that the IC path is circuitous and takes a lot longer to get anywhere on. put another way: imagine that you had no preference over the work, were equally good as both IC and manager, and wanted to optimize for career progression. you would _always_ prefer management. and in fact even if you'd make a better IC than a manager, to a large extent you'd still profit more in management. i agree that it isn't necessarily a promotion to move from IC to manager. but it also _isn't_ a parallel track: by moving, you've moved to a track which is much more direct.