Thriving on the Technical Leadership Path - Keavy McMinn

This is a great article and highlights many of the awesome things that strong technologists can do for an organization without ever being a manager.

Despite the obstacles, and having seen the majority of my peers switch paths to become a people manager, I have deliberately chosen to stay on the engineer track and try to cultivate it to my needs. My motivation is mostly about continuing to do work that I love. I enjoy the creativity of engineering work: I love solving a problem from initial paper scribbles all the way through to shipped product and knowing “I made that.” As a strategic technical leader, I enjoy having meaningful influence right at the start of that process. I love being parachuted into a situation, figuring out which problems even need to be solved, and then figuring out a solution that will address them.

This is a topic I have conversations about frequently. There are awesome opportunities in technology that do not require people to take on management responsibilities. As such, the only reason you should take a management path is that you truly, really, enjoy it and wish to pursue that. There are so many ways to continue to add value as you grow a career in tech.