Three things I’ve learned about this type of ladder: first, that people, process, and political skills (basically the sort of stuff that Tanya Reilly calls glue work) go from useful to valuable to essential as you move up the ladder; second, that these skills do very little to help you climb the first couple of rungs on the ladder; and third, that there are more than zero engineering managers who know this but don’t know how to communicate it to their reports who are struggling to get promoted for exactly this reason.
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— Via @rmurphey, Eng ladders, promotions & glue work