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In a lot of regular (non-tech) companies it's way harder to progress on the technical path vs management path. The need for very senior technical people is ofte

In a lot of regular (non-tech) companies it's way harder to progress on the technical path vs management path. The need for very senior technical people is often not very high and there is not much of the type of work that these people could do. Most companies don't develop new databases, operating systems or cloud offerings. A lot of them also like their managers to make at least the same money or more than the tech people reporting to them so your salary outlook is also limited. In summary: Unless you are at a company that does very advanced technical work the technical specialist career path is often very limited in terms of advancement opportunities and salary potential.

andi999 6y ago
Also a lot of the experience is not transferable.
blablabla123 6y ago
> The need for very senior technical people is often not very high and there is not much of the type of work that these people could do. I don't buy this. There are bizillions of technical challenges, people are waiting for any sort of relief from Covid, Climate Change and all the other - sometimes more happy - challenges of every day life. Few of these things can be solved in a purely technical way. But we rather want to work on commodity problems. This observation ironically holds true not only in Software Engineering but probably anything Tech/Science related. On the one hand there are these really obvious problems that need so many people hours and on the other hand everything slightly difficult is too risky, too expensive or just too much work.
- spaetzleesser 6y ago
  “I don't buy this.” I wasn’t saying this is a good thing. But in reality this is how it works. Not many companies take on very challenging technology tasks. This includes the big tech companies whose innovation output to me seems pretty low compared to their revenues and profits.

andi999 6y ago

Also a lot of the experience is not transferable.

blablabla123 6y ago

> The need for very senior technical people is often not very high and there is not much of the type of work that these people could do. I don't buy this. There are bizillions of technical challenges, people are waiting for any sort of relief from Covid, Climate Change and all the other - sometimes more happy - challenges of every day life. Few of these things can be solved in a purely technical way. But we rather want to work on commodity problems. This observation ironically holds true not only in Software Engineering but probably anything Tech/Science related. On the one hand there are these really obvious problems that need so many people hours and on the other hand everything slightly difficult is too risky, too expensive or just too much work.

spaetzleesser 6y ago
“I don't buy this.” I wasn’t saying this is a good thing. But in reality this is how it works. Not many companies take on very challenging technology tasks. This includes the big tech companies whose innovation output to me seems pretty low compared to their revenues and profits.