We need someone who has done “it” before

Re:We need someone who has done “it” before by ryandrake on Thursday April 28, 2022 @12:07PM (#31194265)

Very few companies have a legitimate “parallel but equal” tech track for IC’s that remains IC all the way up. At some point on the totem pole you end up managing. All roads upward point to it. I currently work for a company that has a robust stack of levels for software engineers, but nobody at the “director equivalent” tech level is an actual IC.

I love the concept of having VP-level IC “wizard” roles who don’t have to manage, but have never seen it in practice.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We need someone who has done “it” before by Firmwarrior on Thursday April 28, 2022 @03:44PM (#31197306)

I've seen those roles at Microsoft, Amazon, and other big tech companies.. Like you implied, though, they all plateau in compensation around $800k or so.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We need someone who has done “it” before by disgruntledphd2 on Friday April 29, 2022 @09:08AM (#31204601)

These roles definitely exist, but it's worth counting the relative numbers at each level for Manager/Senior Manager/Director/VP vs IC's at that level.

Generally, there's wayyy less of the IC roles, which essentially means that people who want advancement are often gonna end up on the management track.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:We need someone who has done “it” before by onionisafruit on Thursday April 28, 2022 @08:10PM (#31199802)

At my most recent company engineering managers made less than the engineers they managed and staff engineers usually made more than directors. So if you wanted to go the management track for advancement it meant a pay cut for at least a few years.

[ Parent | on HN ]