Were those higher-level leaders managers? I mean I agree with your exact statement, but in my direct experience, the higher-level leaders tend to be less and less engineers.
Unless there is some power of the purse-strings, the two-tracks thing is always going to be biased in favor of the managers.
That's the beauty of working in a tech company compared to a non-tech company. Every single manager in my org is a former engineer. Every single manager above them is a former engineer. Heavy majority of directors in the org are former engineers.
I feel like that's really gonna depend on what part of the tech sector you're working in.
In the world of early and middle stage startups, you're probably right. However, in massive tech companies or more legacy-type tech companies, it seems like you're a lot more likely to find managers who are trained as managers and not engineers (MBAs, etc.)
I agree with you in general. However, my specific experience with this comes from working at one of those massive tech companies. And there are definitely orgs within the company that fall under the "MBA-types-running-the-show" umbrella, but, I think, I just got very lucky with my org.
Yeah, the experience probably varies a ton across the industry and even within orgs. I'm sure most people around here who've been in tech for a while can tell stories about both types of company.
Unless there is some power of the purse-strings, the two-tracks thing is always going to be biased in favor of the managers.