An interview once opened with the man across the table asking why I wanted a job I was clearly overqualified for.
Fair question, if you read a CV the way most companies draw their org chart: management on top, everything else somewhere underneath.
Most engineering ladders just stop. Junior, mid, senior, maybe a lead, and then every rung above has "manager" in the title. The only way up is to stop doing the thing that got you there.
Management isn't the villain here. It's a proper job and a hard one. My problem is with the drawing. Management is a choice. It was never a promotion.
I've hit that ceiling myself (I built it, as MD of my own agency). I've pushed for a real engineering track everywhere I've had a say since. And I've watched an excellent manager step back to engineering at exactly the same level, same number on both sides, and have everyone around him read it as a demotion anyway.
Writing the rungs down is necessary. It just doesn't stop anyone reading them upside down.
New post, on ladders, titles, and picking which side of the coin you want facing up:
#SoftwareEngineering #EngineeringManagement #CareerLadder #TechCareers