Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!bu.edu!wang!wdr From: wdr@wang.com (William Ricker) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Not engineers Message-ID: Date: 29 Apr 91 22:22:10 GMT References: <1991Apr17.144402.16637@sparky.IMD.Sterling.COM> <33186@mimsy.umd.edu> <1991Apr21.173924.16465@cbnewsm.att.com> <6242@opal1.UUCP> Organization: Wang Labs, Lowell MA, USA Lines: 45 >> cml@tove.cs.umd.edu (Christopher Lott) writes: >>> If I remember correctly from my brief time at IBM, they have a dual >>> career track. Good technical people can become senior then more senior >>> (forgot the catchy titles) tech people without assuming managerial duties. >>> I assume (but don't know) that the salaries were comparable. Anyone else >>> out there work for a place with this dual track? Is this common? Yes, IBM has a wide range of individual-contributor levels, including the "Fellow of IBM" level, which as I understand it is an appointment for life and getting a personal budget from a senior VP. I believe it was Backus, inventor of Fortran etc, whom I met with such. The MITRE Corp. officially has a technical ladder as well as a management ladder, but the rungs are further apart with space for fewer people on each rung. And in too many portions of the organization it's treated as a holding place for burned out managers. Here at Wang Labs, there are technical titles ranging fairly high, with no apparent requirement to manage to be promoted. It does help to have a patron manager whose personal staff you are on, however, if you want to completely avoid even team-leadership. I know one engineer who is staff with glorious title & perqs to an Executive VP, and has not to my knowledge ever managed anyone. I know someone else, now staff to a Director/virt.VP, who when made a dept.head, hired an assistant, created a new "staff" title, Promoted his "assistant" to be his boss, and then had himself transferred into this new staff slot -- thus setting a precedent for the rest of us, who can now aspire to be staff to dept.heads and above. (His quote: "I've never had a boss whose job I wanted.") My boss is nominally a department head for four researchers, but in reality we're a collective of staff of whom he's senior guide. He has to appear to have management responsibility on the org chart, but I believe his title is still a "staff" as opposed to line title -- although he has his own staff and appears on the org chart next to a department. He's the first boss I've had whose job I'd want! Bell Labs solved the problem by having only one title for professional staff. The bosses paid whatever it took to keep the folks worth keeping. I don't believe the bosses were forbidden to pay more than their own salaries? -- /s/ Bill Ricker wdr@wang.wang.com "The Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own one." *** Warning: This account is not authorized to express opinions. ***