IC to Manager career path - Part 1

Every individual contributor (IC) goes through; whether to continue as an IC or a manager. It is a crucial factor in one's career path.

I started my career as an Individual contributor and shifted my career path to a full-time Manager after 7 years. Even though I was an individual contributor, I was always taken team level initiative in terms of choosing the right technology, defining best practices, sharing knowledge, and supporting my peers.

I was technically strong and always wanted to grow. And this question always ticks me on whether to continue as IC or as a manager. Here is the potential career path from IC to a manager based on the area of interest.

As an IC I could see several team challenges and always thought of what would I do if I were a team lead or manager to solve those challenges. One thing I learned over the period is that being a team manager would allow me to give a positive impact on the team, product, and organization. This is a great opportunity to impact multiple people’s lives at large.

Now, the question is how do I transition from IC to Manager? Who would allow an IC to be a manager? One always needs a sponsor to promote an IC as a manager. Most of the time the sponsor won’t know that you as an IC interested to be a manager.

During my first job at TCS, I took a course “Communicate for results”. This changed my thought process and perspective toward life. I used to think that people would recognize one’s efforts. After the course, I got to know the fact that unless we communicate, no one knows the efforts being put in; unless you created an impact that is visible to everyone. Most of the time the efforts being put in are not visible immediately but gives a greater impact over the period. It takes time to recognize this and by that time lot has changed. One must make effective communication for the expected results.

In short, if you are looking for a shift in career path, you should make steps towards that and communicate to your manager/director who can sponsor that opportunity. Believe me, every leader wants his team to grow.

Based on stats from the ambition box, here are the stats:

Engineering Managers Salary (link)

Engineers’ Salary (link) - Even though the salaries shown in the stats are low, I believe it is double what is recorded here in my view.

The manager’s compensation is at least 2X (considering the engineer’s salary is double the stats shared earlier). This is a big win in terms of financial success and career progression.

I will plan to create another article on which manager role is the right choice to make.’

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