This is an excellent point. If you are a hands on techie by inclination, then you should be aware that blindly chasing promotion in an organisation that doesn’t have a track for “individual contributors” is simply going to lead to more time in meetings and less time doing what you are good at and enjoy.
Most of the corporate world is built around the idea that promotion will entail more and more (formal) leadership responsibilities.
My personal experience is that people who wish to specialise in developing their own technical work to a higher level, without taking on management responsibilities, need to be more proactive about seeking the next role that will be right for them and very often that means looking externally.
Of course there are a number of organisations that explicitly provide a specialist seniority track outside management (Sun Microsystems was the first that I encountered), but you probably already know if you work somewhere like that.
My personal experience is that people who wish to specialise in developing their own technical work to a higher level, without taking on management responsibilities, need to be more proactive about seeking the next role that will be right for them and very often that means looking externally.
Of course there are a number of organisations that explicitly provide a specialist seniority track outside management (Sun Microsystems was the first that I encountered), but you probably already know if you work somewhere like that.