This is a true statement for any industry with a highly skilled labor force, whether you write code, run excel models at a bank, or make jet engines.
From my observations/experiences, these three things are consistent (and it's mentioned throughout the thread):
1. Be closer to the money: There's a reason why sales people make more money than marketers. Look at Salesforce.com's operating statement and they spend >3x more money on sales and marketing than R&D.
2. Never be the best at making a widget or they'll have you make the widget forever: If you're the best at something highly technical, the management would be crazy to promote you to something more client facing or more managerial. There are some organizations that truly value technical skill on a meritocratic basis (think traders at a hedge fund or rockstar developers), but they are more rare.
3. If the boss/rest of the company doesn't know what you do, you won't be compensated for it: I wonder if the reason why Codacademy/Udacity is important is because it starts to teach non-technical people like me the value of good code. I have far more appreciation for my technical co-founder now that I've tried to code than I did before (and I thought I already had a lot).
In the end, my suggestion is to gain a broader set of skills that make you more marketable to your company or join a company that appreciates your ability.
From my observations/experiences, these three things are consistent (and it's mentioned throughout the thread):
1. Be closer to the money: There's a reason why sales people make more money than marketers. Look at Salesforce.com's operating statement and they spend >3x more money on sales and marketing than R&D.
2. Never be the best at making a widget or they'll have you make the widget forever: If you're the best at something highly technical, the management would be crazy to promote you to something more client facing or more managerial. There are some organizations that truly value technical skill on a meritocratic basis (think traders at a hedge fund or rockstar developers), but they are more rare.
3. If the boss/rest of the company doesn't know what you do, you won't be compensated for it: I wonder if the reason why Codacademy/Udacity is important is because it starts to teach non-technical people like me the value of good code. I have far more appreciation for my technical co-founder now that I've tried to code than I did before (and I thought I already had a lot).
In the end, my suggestion is to gain a broader set of skills that make you more marketable to your company or join a company that appreciates your ability.