Management should not be the only option for engineering advancement, or even the default one. So how can we support our leading engineers to follow the career path that they truly want?
Great managers make great teams, and organisations are rightfully eager to find engineers with manager potential. But management should not be the default career path for engineers. Many of the “leadership” skills that make for good managers (e.g. setting a clear direction, caring about other humans, understanding the business, building consensus, communicating ideas) are also the ones that make stellar senior, staff, and principal engineers. If we require these skills at senior engineering levels, we’ll boost our ability to complete difficult projects, make better technical decisions, and bring up the skill level of our whole engineering organisation.
