[tacticalDonut]

I've come to realize that the promise of a 50/50 split between technical work and management after getting promoted to a data science technical lead manager is not something that is feasible within my org. Unfortunately, I'm at an organization in which the only way up is for ICs to move to management. So I'm leaving to another company that has much more runway for IC career progression.

I've got a great relationship with my current employer, so I've mentioned this career progression issue to them in my exit interview and it's something that middle management is tracking, but getting corporate leadership on board to change their thinking is difficult since our revenue is driven by billable work on a man hour basis. This creates an incentive for people to build teams of direct reports under them and grow a business line/contract to increase revenue in order to show value and accelerate career growth.

Until the company can get more service contracts where they're selling software/licenses/support instead of butts in seats, I don't see this paradigm changing any time soon.

Very interesting how business models drive things like this. Obvious in hindsight, but still interesting to think about in terms of incentives driving org structure.

[rathboma]

Lack of IC progression is a real problem.

I used to manage teams and missed engineering too much, so I quit to be a freelance engineering consultant. It felt like the best way to progress as an IC for me.

Bigger tech companies do a better job of IC career paths than others, but it still feels like your influence is muted compared to managers.