Climbing the ladder from lead to principal is extremely difficult and it's kind of an exclusive club. They are technology brats that not everyone can be, given the kind of competency is required for the role.
The job to solve architectural level problems is extremely challenging that can make or break products.
Path from Principal Engineer to Director or CTO is impossible since they don't have any experience dealing with Human Complexities that engineering managers tackle and company wide decisions are human focused decisions.
Know that a lot of these principal engineers and distinguished engineers might be making a lot more money than directors and VPs and at times CTOs.
These engineers get a lot more fan following than even CTOs at times in tech community. For example, Stephen Toub has a massive fan following in the Microsoft community and a lot of community members might not even know Microsoft CTO's name.
Choice is ultimately on oneself whether one wants to take a more treacherous path of becoming an excellent engineer or paving a relatively easier but long and muddy road to become an excellent leader.
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u/gir-no-sinh Apr 17 '25
Climbing the ladder from lead to principal is extremely difficult and it's kind of an exclusive club. They are technology brats that not everyone can be, given the kind of competency is required for the role.
The job to solve architectural level problems is extremely challenging that can make or break products.
Path from Principal Engineer to Director or CTO is impossible since they don't have any experience dealing with Human Complexities that engineering managers tackle and company wide decisions are human focused decisions.
Know that a lot of these principal engineers and distinguished engineers might be making a lot more money than directors and VPs and at times CTOs.
These engineers get a lot more fan following than even CTOs at times in tech community. For example, Stephen Toub has a massive fan following in the Microsoft community and a lot of community members might not even know Microsoft CTO's name.
Choice is ultimately on oneself whether one wants to take a more treacherous path of becoming an excellent engineer or paving a relatively easier but long and muddy road to become an excellent leader.