Reply to post: "you need to become a manager to get that noticeable rise in pay"

"you need to become a manager to get that noticeable rise in pay"

The problem is this, together the fact that to become a manager you need now to have some kind of background in commerce/economics only - which wasn't true in the past. I met people, now in their eighties, who climbed the ranks starting working as blue collars. They become directors of production, and the like.

IMHO it all started with the idea of "maximizing shareholder value" regardless of the company health in the long term. It's clear that to achieve it you don't need domain experts in the company products, you need people expert to manage just the sales/financial part, regardless of the products. From there the idea of the "professional manager" who can switch from a company making drinks to one making computers without any need to learn anything and gain experience.

So you can climb the higher ranks only if you are proficient with the sales/financial issues, not the production/technical ones. So tech people are often hindered to get high-level roles - even when they would be better suited to understand and manage production. I'm not saying you don't need sales/financial experts too, I'm saying you'd need different skills at the higher level too to run a company well. companies would need a dual track system, and be able to promote highly competent and skilled "tech" people as well. Some do, but are not the majority.

It's no surprise that once company get bigger, and their upper level becomes full of "professional managers", they usually stop to innovate too because there are no longer the people with the rights skills to do that at the decision levels, and "meeting quarterly targets" becomes the only important thing.

It is also a clever way to hinder competition for well paid jobs. If you are able to cut the pool of possible candidates, it's easier to keep your job, climb the ranks, or offer a new one to friend. Call it caste system, if you like.