Of course, not wanting to advance is fine. Many of the techies-turned-managers I've worked for hated the advancement because it removed them from the actual tech.
Advancement doesn't require becoming a manager. (If it does, in your company, then change companies yesterday.) It means working on more interesting, higher-impact projects.
Most engineers that I know only become managers because there is no other way to control the division of labor and get quality work. (Of course, in reality, managers don't get to do the decent work either because they spend all day in meetings.)
What you really need is enough control over the division of labor to continually have high-quality projects to work on. One solution would be only to work for open-allocation companies.
Totally, and I didn't mean to suggest it is. The lateral moves I mentioned were to technical architect roles, which aren't daily coders, but also aren't management. However, that's not the path some people want to take, either.
When I interviewed for my current position, I was very upfront with the interviewers that I was not interested in any kind of management position that takes me away from coding. I let them know that if they were looking for an engineer to groom for management that they needed to look elsewhere. Coding is my passion, and I don't want anything that takes my main focus away from that. Now I'm the technical lead for multiple projects, where I do about 75% coding vs 25% other stuff, and I'm very happy at this level.
Comments
Of course, not wanting to advance is fine. Many of the techies-turned-managers I've worked for hated the advancement because it removed them from the actual tech.
Advancement doesn't require becoming a manager. (If it does, in your company, then change companies yesterday.) It means working on more interesting, higher-impact projects.
Most engineers that I know only become managers because there is no other way to control the division of labor and get quality work. (Of course, in reality, managers don't get to do the decent work either because they spend all day in meetings.)
What you really need is enough control over the division of labor to continually have high-quality projects to work on. One solution would be only to work for open-allocation companies.
Totally, and I didn't mean to suggest it is. The lateral moves I mentioned were to technical architect roles, which aren't daily coders, but also aren't management. However, that's not the path some people want to take, either.
When I interviewed for my current position, I was very upfront with the interviewers that I was not interested in any kind of management position that takes me away from coding. I let them know that if they were looking for an engineer to groom for management that they needed to look elsewhere. Coding is my passion, and I don't want anything that takes my main focus away from that. Now I'm the technical lead for multiple projects, where I do about 75% coding vs 25% other stuff, and I'm very happy at this level.