
Management Isn't a Promotion - tkrajcar
https://blog.newrelic.com/2016/05/17/engineering-management-different-jobs/
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Domenic_S
I don't know how I feel about the trend of claiming engineering and management
is equivalent. Perhaps in pay they are, but the real question is power and
except at the very top (CTO/CIO) I doubt engineering has a lot of broad power
and discretion. Engineering doesn't cast vision the way management does.
Principal Engineer and Sr Director/VP are on paper equivalent jobs, but I
wager there are at least _some_ decisions a PE needs Director approval on
(where the reverse is never true).

I don't think that's actually a terrible thing. Some people are better at
refining others' plans and then implementing; others are great big-picture or
ducks-in-a-row planners. There _should_ be multiple tracks for different
skillset buckets. But to say they're equivalent isn't really true.

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kbenson
Ideally, I think they should be equivalent and both should require buy-in from
the other on major decisions. Making management decisions in a tech company
without intimate knowledge of what can and cannot be done, and in specific
time-frames is ridiculous (in the cases where the decision relies on
engineering), just as making technical decisions without intimate knowledge of
what the market wants, needs, and will respond to is ridiculous (in the cases
where it affects products in the market).

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tkrajcar
Well said, I agree completely.

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purplebanker
The why does it pay more? Is it because people think it's a promotion? Are the
skills for management less "tangible" and harder to adquire? Or maybe it
doesn's really pay more and it's just the places i've seen.

