The fork in the career path

At a certain point in your professional growth, you need to actively choose whether to focus on technical challenges in the context of people, or people challenges in the context of technology.

— Anton Drukh (@adrukh) February 4, 2022

Some companies aren’t on board with that tweet. I still see a lot of:

• “Tech Lead Manager” job openings (focus on neither by focusing on both, very smart!)
• Expecting so-called Engineering Managers to own the architecture or tech strategy (what are Staff Engineers for?)
• Cultural vibes that management is a step up from IC instead of a parallel track (which makes should-be-ICs feel like they have to manage to progress).

I agree with the tweet: at a certain point you have to choose. But choosing only works if you’re at a company that sees value in the choice.