It’s a bit unfortunate how the article says “Meta eliminated many manager roles, moved down many existing managers to individual contributor roles” as if moving from management to IC is a demotion. This attitude is killing our industry.
675 karma · joined March 25, 2019
1. There are many more sr mgr/director+ positions than sr. staff+
2. Corporate politics is brutal and a seasoned mgr is adept at it. Unfortunately, the sooner you get better at it the better for your career. This is one of the reasons why a seasoned director will always be able to command a much bigger scope than sr. staff+.
3. The bar for rising in the IC ladder is astronomically higher than that for mgmt ladder.
4. And let's not forget interviews. Management interviews are much easier than ICs. (think leetcode).
5. Last but not the least, even in big tech companies (FAANGM or whatever acronym) you should really measure how many of sr. staff+ folks became sr. staff+ after a stint in mgmt. They used mgmt to catapult their career after seeing stagnation/difficulty of moving up as an IC. You would be surprised how many of these very senior ICs have had mgmt careers for several years before. It's easy to extol the virtues of being an IC once you've reached there but no one sees how they got there :-).
Now, don't get me wrong. There are some companies/orgs/teams where higher ICs are valued much more and do better than mgrs but it's really the minority. It's in your best interest to switch to mgmt after 8-10 yrs of IC career (8-10 yrs is sufficient enough to gain a solid footing in tech) and learn the ropes fast. I waited for 18 yrs and can see the difference.