I agree with the author in regards to it being different career paths, but I think your take is better and more nuanced. I've done both. I started my career being a spotlight engineer, quickly advancing the ranks and being sent on a educational path for leadership. I didn't like it though. Don't get me wrong. I basked in the glory for the first year, but then when it got to be just a regular day, I really started to miss solving what I see as interesting problems. Which is often working on stability and safety, building tools and infrastructure which makes it easier for other people to serve the business.
Maybe it's because I've done the spotlight thing, but I don't really care about praise from management anymore. In fact I suspect that most of my direct managers have never really known what I did, but since they've seen the impact for other people, it's not really been an issue in regards to my reviews or pay. I don't get a lot of credit and I don't get a lot of praise. I don't necessarily see someone who's build a great product with the tools I've made as stealing my credit either. That's sort of the point of what I do.
I completely agree with you that this is not just Big Tech, or Enterprise or even in organisations that are focused on Tech. I also agree that it's not about ignoring the business, you're still going to want to build things that are useful. You're still going to do change management from the ground up to make sure people know the tools are useful and how to use them. You're still going to network and be friendly with your co-workers.
What you can skip is a lot of the corporate politics and frankly most of the "financial" information. I don't even think the price is very high, you don't get the publicity, but it's not like spotlight engineers necessarily get better pay or better career paths unless they want to go into management.
Maybe it's because I've done the spotlight thing, but I don't really care about praise from management anymore. In fact I suspect that most of my direct managers have never really known what I did, but since they've seen the impact for other people, it's not really been an issue in regards to my reviews or pay. I don't get a lot of credit and I don't get a lot of praise. I don't necessarily see someone who's build a great product with the tools I've made as stealing my credit either. That's sort of the point of what I do.
I completely agree with you that this is not just Big Tech, or Enterprise or even in organisations that are focused on Tech. I also agree that it's not about ignoring the business, you're still going to want to build things that are useful. You're still going to do change management from the ground up to make sure people know the tools are useful and how to use them. You're still going to network and be friendly with your co-workers.
What you can skip is a lot of the corporate politics and frankly most of the "financial" information. I don't even think the price is very high, you don't get the publicity, but it's not like spotlight engineers necessarily get better pay or better career paths unless they want to go into management.