Do we need to rethink the old IC vs management career conundrum?

Traditionally, people in technical roles could only go so far in their career before they were forced to jump into the management lane. Of course, just because people are good at what they do, doesn’t mean they’ll make great managers.

So in recent years, the tech industry has focused on extending the individual contributor (IC) lane, offering people an opportunity to master their technical skills and rise through the ranks of a company without managing a team.

Ideally, you’d have IC and management lanes all the way to the top. It’s certainly a concept that interests me, given the amazing people I’ve worked with who show great technical thought leadership and could benefit from expanding their impact and influence within the organisation.

But the reality is that maintaining a balance of IC and management pathways is tricky, because there’s often a blend of technical and leadership skills needed in any role. In a way, it’s less about defining two lanes and more about looking at a technical career as a portfolio of opportunity.

At Xero, we’re currently developing our career pathways to make sure people have a broad range of opportunities and can do the best work of their lives. It’s a continuous journey, but one we’re really focused on getting right. Here are some of the things we’re thinking about that may be useful to you when thinking about your career direction.

Leadership isn’t always about people management

I’ve been having a lot of conversations at Xero about different types of leadership in the tech sector, particularly around how thought leadership is important for people in senior IC roles.

You may not manage a team, but people are following your advice, designs, blueprints and plans. They trust you. They’re following you. That makes you a leader.

Conversely, to become an effective manager in a tech company, you need to have a good grasp of technology capabilities so you can effectively guide teams by showing empathy for their areas of expertise. It’s not an easy ask when the pace of change in our industry is so rapid. Just as ICs can’t hide in the back end all day, managers can’t work at arms length from the tools and processes their teams use to ship product.

Teams need a diversity of thought

While there is some overlap in skills and responsibilities, it still makes sense to build career pathways that lean in an IC or management direction. But what we’re also trying to do at Xero is build teams that have a diversity of thought, with differing skills, backgrounds, experiences, ideas and abilities. This allows us to come at a problem from as many angles as we can, rather than placing someone in a product pod based purely on their job title.

A diverse team makes collaboration even more vital, because every voice matters. Great ideas can come from anywhere. That’s why we use a cross-functional approach to product delivery, while providing a ‘home base’ for people to learn from others in their area of expertise. It doesn’t matter what career path you want to follow, you should be valued for the contribution you make to the team and the wider business.

Everyone needs professional growth

A lack of opportunity for professional growth is one of the biggest reasons people decide to move to a new employer. We’re proud of the opportunities we offer at Xero, from external training and events to internal development programs. But I’m conscious of making sure we don’t limit technical training to those in technical roles, or leadership training to people who manage teams.

Providing everyone with an opportunity to learn and grow means we’ll have a greater pool of skills and knowledge to draw on.

People who understand a specific tool or topic on a deep level are just as valuable as generalists who can work successfully across a broad range of projects. So if you’re looking to step into a new role or company, it’s worth finding out what opportunities there are to learn and grow in your role and beyond.

People thrive with autonomy and support

The balance of autonomy and support is really important in technical roles. You want the freedom to run with an initiative and feel ownership of your work, while also learning from more experienced people in the business who care about your growth.

As Xero continues to grow at a rapid pace around the world, we are thinking about how we best maintain world-class engineering standards while also empowering teams to work in a way that works for them.

The old cliche of asking candidates where they see themselves in five years is less relevant in the tech sector today. After all, many of the roles we’re hiring for didn’t even exist five years ago. And the idea that you can choose a leadership pathway with no technical expertise, or an IC pathway with no people skills, is similarly outdated.

What’s more important is to focus on building engineering teams that transcend traditional IC and management pathways, so people can do work that challenges and inspires them every day.