Is it really possible to stay technical and move up in a corporation?

Question

Personally, although the powers that be claim it is, I do not believe so!

What do you all think? If so, how?

Answer 1

I do not believe that it is. The skills you have to master, and the workload that you need to slog thru, just don't allow the time for you to remain at the top of your technical game.

Answer 2

Yes it is, but only for companies who develop software as their main line of business.

Having said that, good companies recognise that they can have good developers progress within the company without necessarily moving up the corporate ladder. Some companies equate moving up the ladder with going up the pay scale and don't seem to be able to cope with people staying put in the structure but still having career development. Those companies tend to be the ones that have their managers micro-manage their developers rather than just doing whatever they can to help developers get things done.

Answer 3

I think it is very rare. I have co-workers here that want to move up in the corporation but are almost forced to get a different degree. It also depends on the person. If you perform well at another area I'm sure you would be noticed.

Answer 4

Depends if you're at a technical company oppose to a company that's not technical.

IMO the more you move up the ladder the lesser the programming you will be doing. Don't mean that you're not being technical, just not being the one to do all the work.

Answer 5

It depends on your definition of Move Up is, and what your definition of Technical is...

Would you consider a CTO technical? Would you consider a CTO 'up' ?

Answer 6

I don't believe so because moving up traditionally implies managing others and the more time you spend managing the less time you have to be technical (code, design, etc.). I think your most likely options are to either:

1. Make the decision to go the principle engineer or architect path
2. Target working at a smaller company or startup where you will have more opportunities to stay hands on
3. Start your own company -- then you can do whatever you want -- like stay technical :-)

Answer 7

Start startup , Be Successful , Become large corporation and now you are CEO of large corporation, Still have choice to remain technical if you wish.

Answer 8

You can move stay technical and move up in a corporation to a point. In most larger corporations, they have the usual technical and management advancement paths. Hopefully your company has defined stages of development. On the technical side they are usually associate software engineer, software engineer, senior software engineer, and principal engineer. Beyond a principal engineer you transition into management. Principal engineers have much greater responsibility for overall system development as well as mentoring junior engineers.

Another answer to your question is a question...."how high to do you want to go in the corporation"?

Answer 9

As always, it depends on the management and culture where you work.

In my recent experience, due to the structure of career ladders and opportunities within, my only option was to get into a Project Management/Team Manager position if I wanted to move up in pay. I asked and coerced trying to have them consider adding another tier to the technical path, but no luck. When a position opened up ( they don't open often ) I went for it.

As someone who truly loves the technical work, it has been a point of contention since. I keep myself up to date technically through side-work and on my own time, which causes other issues as there is only so many hours in the day.

As it stands, since they know how good I am technically, they still lean on me in that aspect...but ultimately I'm supposed to be a PM and not so "down in the weeds" and when their demands on me are heavier, it gets to be tough to juggle between...I wear both hats but that's tough, at least in my workplace.

In my case, yes, you can stay technical and "move up", but at greater personal cost.

Live and learn...Good Luck!

Answer 10

(sorry for the english..)

I think its possible when the compony uses the called Y Career. When you grow-up, its natural you more leader and less technical, but if you choice the Y Career you can grow in your technical skill. Thats mean you dont be a leader, you just need to keep good in what you do.

Answer 11

In my experience the fact of the matter is that if you are good at software development/engineering, your manager will not be so eager for you to "move on up", it has a dual knock on effect - first to find a new role for you; secondly fill the gap that you leave behind.

From another point of view, unless you move a considerable way up the ladder, you will always be associated with the work that you have done - and therefore, regardless of the quality of knowledge transfer you do with your replacement, you will always be expected to lend support to any difficult areas that you worked on or have proprietary knowledge of.

Answer 12

Yes it is but the company has to back it up with completely equivalent ladder positions all the way up on both the technical and management ladders. I have been a contractor and worked for many different companies and I have only seen this done correctly and effectively at one company. Look to make sure they actually have people in those positions.

It is still probably a little different as I think it would be easier to be a director on the management side (just don't screw up and kiss the right butt) as upposed to be being a technical ladder director. I have never seen a single person in this position that was not completely and toatslly kick butt technically. So unless you really think that you can be "that guy" it is probably easier to work your way up the management side.

Answer 13

This is a loaded question in some ways. Depending on a few factors, the simple answer is "It depends":

• Current position - If someone is a junior developer, then there is a great chance for that person to stay technical and move up in a corporation as there are intermediate and senior roles that can remain quite technical.

• Company size - If the company is just a handful of people, even a director may still be doing a lot of technical work as part of their duties as there aren't the minions to do it for them.

• Corporate culture - Is there a feeling that managers can't be technical? Or are managers supposed to be as technical as everyone else?

Just some thoughts on this.