from Gergely Orosz | by Gergely Orosz

An engineering manager archetype that goes unrecognised at most companies, though critical to success: the amazing frontline manager who does *not* want to become a manager of managers. There is no career track for these people I know of at small & large places. A huge miss.

These are people who are fantastic at fixing up any team in the org: getting morale in order, motivation up, confidence boosted, retention down. And they *love* doing it, and are amazing at it. Yet they won’t see career advancement, and appreciation is adhoc for their work.

This archetype is similar to the sr eng who doesn’t want to lead: but they often have options to go deep in the staff route. Or the tech founder who does not want to manager - they often have the CTO route. Companies who figure out how to reward&retain these folks will win big.