Ask the Engineers: 'How do you get promoted but stay in engineering roles?'

Are you stuck in a career rut or planning your next move? Maybe you’re a student struggling to decide on an industry? We're putting your burning questions to our panel of seasoned engineers.

In Issue 4, 2019, Michael Reid asked: "How do you deal with the problem that the usual reward for being a good engineer is promotion to a position where you are managing and not engineering?"

"That is probably the most complicated topic for most, if not all, good technical specialists (not only engineers), that at some point you get to the stage where you have to choose: progress further but effectively stop doing what you love, or stay in the profession but do not progress in the career. I guess the only realistic option is to look for very technical companies (usually smaller R&D start-ups) where most of the people are working on a very narrow problem (or set of problems) and where even the chief technology officer will be directly involved in the engineering work."

Vitaly Voloshin

"Few employers have a separate technical route up the pay scale that is attractive enough to keep engineers in engineering roles. Most employers will just moan about skills shortages and wonder why younger recruits don’t stay. You could suggest a reward for your technical abilities, but if the response is unsatisfactory, your options are to accept it, become a manager or leave."

Chris Greatrix

"Is that a problem? I see it as an opportunity. If great engineers manage good engineers, then that is fine. The problem is when we are asked to count beans and deal with HR. But I guess that is because we are so good that people think we have no limitations."

Russell Birnie 

"Lose the antiquated management hierarchy, which equates increased reward with management responsibility. Identify the good managers and the good engineers (or scientists, teachers, accountants, nurses, whatever), regardless of ‘seniority’ in the organisation, and reward them appropriately. What’s wrong with a ‘grade 10’ engineer being managed by a ‘grade 6’ team leader?"

Simon Glover

"The more senior the position, the greater the distance from the engineering coalface. That said, experience informs decision-making and does not preclude more detailed involvement when it is justified."

Roger Crook

"Take the engineering with you and influence for focus on continuous professional development and the management and mitigation of risk."

Nicola Johnson

"You could write a book on this! I believe that being a good engineer also means you acquire management skills to achieve engineering outcomes. These skills, however, though often involving managing people, do not prepare you for general management involving full personnel, sales and finance matters. But they can be learned! You will always be an engineer but your engineering skills will be less utilised. It is a fact that promotion means more reward and if it can be an executive position with an engineering tag, then you may be able to keep engineering yet get more money."

Tom Irons

"Don’t accept the promotion; try to negotiate a pay rise based on performance if pay is the problem. Accept the promotion on the understanding that it is not ‘all managing’ (which most engineering managerial jobs aren’t)." 

Geoff Buck

"I think it gets to a stage in your career where you decide which way you want to go – principal/chief engineer or management. Due to promotions I moved into project management, but I still get a high-level engineering overview and contribute to discussions. I do miss the technical work, but I feel this is the way for me, and also the way women are pushed." 

Wendy