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I experienced the exact same thing, and have watched the mediocre engineers that went straight for management move up the chain. IC engineering just doesnt have that good of career advancement. The cynical career advice is to just move into management as soon as possible.

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Exactly. IC career is not as sexy as HN makes it to be. People pursuing IC careers are doing it for personal reasons, definitely not for growth. Compared to management it takes an order of magnitude more time, influence and energy to get promoted in the IC ladder beyond staff.

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I mean, I don’t know. What people like about IC careers is that it’s even an option for an ambitious, hardworking person to not have to spend their time in management. Staff engineers have a ton more responsibility and authority than an IC could ever get in, like, insurance claims adjusting.

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