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>I want my career path as a developer to never be anything but individual contributor. I like teaching newer Devs but I don't want to manage them. Maybe I'm bei

>I want my career path as a developer to never be anything but individual contributor. I like teaching newer Devs but I don't want to manage them. Maybe I'm being naive? You can do this, but you will have to accept the plateau. There's really nowhere to go beyond Staff/L6, unless you're some super genius full of brilliant ideas or luck into being involved in a game changing product launch. Everything beyond that becomes politics.

WkndTriathlete 4y ago
Not all companies have that plateau.
eklitzke 4y ago
The same applies to being a manager though. You're not going to get promoted forever in any role, at some point you'll hit a terminal level, whether that's in an IC track or a management track. And it's not a problem as long as you find your work fulfilling.
- ramesh31 4y ago
  >The same applies to being a manager though. It depends. If you're able to side-step the middle manager doldrums to Director/VP, and you know how to play the game, the sky's the limit. But IC's are pretty hard capped at L6 short of being involved in the creation of a new business.
- tomtheelder 4y ago
  Well I guess the difference is that the top of the technical leadership track is ostensibly CTO, which is a “higher” role than you’d typically see on the IC side. That said I totally agree with you overall and think the argument you are responding to is a little silly. You can have an absolutely fantastic career staying IC forever. The fact that you might cap out at “staff/principal/whatever engineer,” a hugely influential and generally very well paid role, should not be viewed as a downside to that track.
  - ratorx 4y ago
    Well, in terms of the org chart, you’ll always be higher at an equivalent point in the management track compared to the IC track (starting from team lead, who will report to the team manager), but that’s not necessarily mean there’s not that as room for growth. Even the CTO can have incredibly senior engineers reporting to them as a consultant of sorts. Sure, the probability of arriving at that role is low, but then so is the probability of becoming CTO.
- tannhaeuser 4y ago
  aka the Peter principle
rconti 4y ago
There's nothing wrong with that because you might not even want to go up that high.
the_af 4y ago
Every role has a plateau at any given company. More importantly, why would one always want to "go beyond" any specific role, assuming the pay is good?

WkndTriathlete 4y ago

Not all companies have that plateau.

eklitzke 4y ago

The same applies to being a manager though. You're not going to get promoted forever in any role, at some point you'll hit a terminal level, whether that's in an IC track or a management track. And it's not a problem as long as you find your work fulfilling.

ramesh31 4y ago
>The same applies to being a manager though. It depends. If you're able to side-step the middle manager doldrums to Director/VP, and you know how to play the game, the sky's the limit. But IC's are pretty hard capped at L6 short of being involved in the creation of a new business.
tomtheelder 4y ago
Well I guess the difference is that the top of the technical leadership track is ostensibly CTO, which is a “higher” role than you’d typically see on the IC side. That said I totally agree with you overall and think the argument you are responding to is a little silly. You can have an absolutely fantastic career staying IC forever. The fact that you might cap out at “staff/principal/whatever engineer,” a hugely influential and generally very well paid role, should not be viewed as a downside to that track.
- ratorx 4y ago
  Well, in terms of the org chart, you’ll always be higher at an equivalent point in the management track compared to the IC track (starting from team lead, who will report to the team manager), but that’s not necessarily mean there’s not that as room for growth. Even the CTO can have incredibly senior engineers reporting to them as a consultant of sorts. Sure, the probability of arriving at that role is low, but then so is the probability of becoming CTO.
tannhaeuser 4y ago
aka the Peter principle

rconti 4y ago

There's nothing wrong with that because you might not even want to go up that high.

the_af 4y ago

Every role has a plateau at any given company. More importantly, why would one always want to "go beyond" any specific role, assuming the pay is good?