If you’ve been working in the technology field for some time, you may have witnessed it happening, either in your own team or elsewhere: higher management decides that the team needs a manager, they choose the best engineer from the team, and after a while, that person proves to be a bad manager, either because they didn’t give the team the attention it needed or because they became an expert in micro-management. When this happens, the team ends up losing a great engineer, and depending on the damage done, the next manager will have a tough job rebuilding the team’s trust.

We can even say that the higher management decision was not accurate; they should have evaluated more carefully whether the person was already ready for a track change. But what about the engineer who accepted?

“I’m already a senior; the next step is becoming a people manager.”

There is a significant portion of technology professionals who, once they reach the senior position, believe that the natural progression is to become managers. This may be true in startups or companies that follow an older career track model, but in most companies, career progression is more similar to this:

Source: levels.fyi

As observed above, the career splits into two parallel tracks. In the Technical Track, the individual will strive to become an expert in a specific technology or domain of knowledge (e.g., Event Driven Application Design, Kubernetes).

On the other hand, in the Managerial Track, the focus is more on enabling your team and becoming increasingly connected to the company’s business strategy. A Director of Engineering will be much more involved in their domain’s deliveries than in the technical implementation of those deliveries.

“Okay, I understand now, but my dream is to become a CTO. What should I do?”

If you’re changing lanes with your car, you don’t switch while accelerating. You first signal your intention to change, slow down, and wait for an opportunity to switch.

It’s okay to stay on your lane

I think it’s important to emphasize that you don’t need to change tracks just to progress in your career. Many companies today offer growth opportunities beyond the senior position. If you want to gain leadership experience in more established companies, the positions of Staff Engineer and Principal Engineer include technical leadership as part of their scope, precisely to enable engineers with extensive technical backgrounds to increase their impact within the organization.

Changing Lanes

If you’ve already decided that you want to make this change, the first thing to do is to signal it to your management. Let them know about your intention and ensure that your growth plan includes learning the necessary skills to become a manager.

Previously, your problem-solving skills were important for your code implementation to scale. Now, those skills need to transform into resolving internal or external conflicts within the team. Your time spent in code reviews will turn into time spent in meetings with team members to work on their growth plans, coach their performance, and so on.

Often, this transition may take some time because, in addition to making sure the person is ready to take on this new responsibility, there needs to be an internal need within the company to promote someone.

“Okay, but the traffic is at a standstill, I can’t change lanes. What do I do?”

Using the analogy above, your career is your car, and you are the one driving it. If your current company doesn’t have room for growth, and you believe you’re ready, start looking for managerial positions in other companies.

It’s important to note that I’m not encouraging anyone to simply change jobs. If you feel that it’s best to wait for an opportunity within your current company, then do so. But if you’ve reached a career ceiling and want to make a change, you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone.

Be sure about the change

Sometimes we see the lane next to us moving faster and decide to switch without careful thought, only to find ourselves frustrated when we realize we’re not moving at the speed we desired. Every change needs to be prepared and thought through. Don’t just think about money or prestige; consider all the things you’ll have to learn from scratch to make this change work for you.

Being a servant leader requires a lot of effort, and this shouldn’t be underestimated.