Is it me or do attempts to generalize career development across companies seem futile?
The concrete example here I can give is working at one company where "Manager" meant you had 10+ direct reports and were expected to do almost no technical work. Versus a second company where "Manager" meant you had 4-5 directs and were doing significant amount of technical work. The path from IC to Manager at company 1 had almost no commonalities with company 2 despite similar-sounding titles.
I guess what I am saying is that promotion ladders are so tightly integrated with company norms that attempting to seek outside advice on "how do I get to the next level" seems useless.
Edit: To rephrase more succinctly - Are articles like TFA useless or do I not know how to interperet them?
It's a data point. It's similar to the ridiculous titles given to ICs in the last 20 years. What does Senior Developer vs Senior Engineer mean? Do Architects code or not? I'm sure you have an answer, but someone else with different experience might have a complete different answer.
The concrete example here I can give is working at one company where "Manager" meant you had 10+ direct reports and were expected to do almost no technical work. Versus a second company where "Manager" meant you had 4-5 directs and were doing significant amount of technical work. The path from IC to Manager at company 1 had almost no commonalities with company 2 despite similar-sounding titles.
I guess what I am saying is that promotion ladders are so tightly integrated with company norms that attempting to seek outside advice on "how do I get to the next level" seems useless.
Edit: To rephrase more succinctly - Are articles like TFA useless or do I not know how to interperet them?