Based on what I have seen in the engineering industry, it seems that well rounded engineers, advance much more rapidly than others.  This statement is not as obvious as it may sound when first reading it.  Wouldn’t you think that an engineer who is a design superstar that can crank out top notch design after top notch design would quickly climb the ranks?  Wouldn’t an engineer with profound managerial skills, ride those skills to the top?

It seems like what ends up happening is that the design superstar is so good at designing that they don’t end up doing anything else.  They design so efficiently and they enjoy it so much that they don’t really bother learning other skills and the company is enjoying their productivity so they go along with it.  The super manager can certainly manage people but when it comes time to get his or her hands dirty and jump into a technical situation to solve a problem, their weakness shows and it detracts from their overall managerial value. [Read more...]