anotherdatem

Advancing as an engineer is probably easier for the ambitious because there's not a fixed number of senior technical staff. If a technical contributor levels up their game, they can nearly immediately level up their pay.

The management track doesn't work that way; we need to level up our games, and then wait for an opportunity to arise due to corporate growth or turnover. For example, I'm getting coached to take over the CTO slot, but there's no reason to believe that I'll ever get the opportunity, because there's no reason to believe the existing CTO will ever give up their job.

It's a b2b tech company. I've had at least one direct report who made more than me for my entire tenure.

They don't have any formal way of knowing my salary, and I don't know what they think I make.

I'd share the details of the managerial bands if they were considering a switch, but to date they've been very clear that they're happy staying technical.

I'm a VP at a mid-sized ($100mm revenue) startup. I report to the CTO, and am his probable successor.

I make slightly less than our highest paid engineer.

I would recommend finding a company with a true parallel track, rather than dedicating yourself to a job that you don't want, and thus likely won't ever be great at.