> Two Tracks / Becoming a manager is not a promotion
To any young engineers who may be reading this, this is social fiction. If someone can fire you but you can't fire them, you better believe you're not on parallel tracks.
EDIT: it's not just firing. Managers know your compensation, but you don't know theirs. They'll all work to split their team into multiple teams so they can say they ran a group; the good ones will soon become managers of managers, and then managers of managers of managers. They'll sit in on senior meetings, work on strategic decisions, and you'll watch them rise further and futher in the company hierarchy while you're enjoying your "parallel track".
To any young engineers who may be reading this, this is social fiction. If someone can fire you but you can't fire them, you better believe you're not on parallel tracks.
EDIT: it's not just firing. Managers know your compensation, but you don't know theirs. They'll all work to split their team into multiple teams so they can say they ran a group; the good ones will soon become managers of managers, and then managers of managers of managers. They'll sit in on senior meetings, work on strategic decisions, and you'll watch them rise further and futher in the company hierarchy while you're enjoying your "parallel track".