This hasn't been true in a lot of companies for like my entire career. You can move up as an ic. Titles like Staff, senior staff principal. A Staff and Sr manager would be paid the same

> This hasn't been true in a lot of companies for like my entire career. You can move up as an ic.

You can, but it's a dead end ultimately. I've been a distinguished engineer which is about as far as one can go (some companies have Fellows, but it's just a few people so basically impossible). If you have any desire to grow beyond that, management track is the only possibility.

Also, moving to management from a DE level is harder because you're basically around a Sr.Director level (give or take, depending on company) but have no management experience.

If you care about career growth (and I'm not saying you have to, geeking out on the IC ladder is way more fun), I suggest as soon as you are at the equivalent level of a manager on the numeric ladder, switch to management.

> A Staff and Sr manager would be paid the same

do they report to the same level? every place I've seen a "technical track" and "management track" it seems the higher level technical people report to someone on the same or even lower level in management. I.E. a manager can have technical reports that are equal level or higher. that obviously doesn't happen in the management track.

not that these are first level managers but if a principal engineer not reporting to a VP, the it doesnt seem like the tracks are equal.

What do those roles do? Where I work there's a managerial track and a technical track, but if you actually read the job descriptions the technical track is basically either the same as management track, or a devrel role (effectively managing people outside the company).