I'd love a blog about how to AVOID becoming a manager as an engineer or technical person. It really seems "contributors" are at the bottom of the pyramid, especially in companies whose core business is not technical in nature.
It's not particularly hard. Just never accept a leadership position :). As long as you keep your technical skills sharp, you should never be short of a job. However your income will likely plateau very early in your career. You can try to become famous as a way to counteract that, but it is substantially harder than just going into leadership.
