We know there are many ways to grow and progress beyond just managing people. In a start-up we want, and need, to encourage people to develop their careers in lots of different ways. For these reasons we have 2 'tracks' for your career progression and you can be on either track, progressing along the path upwards, or moving horizontally between the competencies where your interests take you.

Our two Tracks

• Individual contributor - Looking after things and ideas
• Manager - Looking after people

What is the main difference between the tracks?

Every role has a mix of technical and managerial responsibilities; this is true across every level of the team and across every function in Whereby. The main difference in the two is how they spend the majority of their time.

Managers spend the majority of their time managing i.e. developing, coaching and leading teams, and setting goals, with the main focus being people and project management. The exact % of time spent on people management vs execution of work will vary depending on the number of reports you have, how experienced they are and how much hiring needs to be done. You may still be delivering in specific tasks and projects, but you will just spend more time managing others.

Individual contributors spend the majority of their time working on their speciality e.g. critical projects, with the main focus being on delivering impact through deep technical expertise and hands on technical work.

Leadership comes in many forms, and you can be a leader without being a manager. Management should not be seen as a promotion, but a change in your career track.

It is also possible to manage someone and still be an IC, if the majority of your time is still spent on project delivery rather than managing people.

Why do we have these tracks?

We know everyone has their personal strengths, and those strengths tend to align with one of the specific tracks above. We've built these paths for you so that you can be develop and be promoted based on your strengths and natural interests. We also want to create space for members of our team who want to develop, grow, and progress, without the requirement to manage anyone (which most of us will never do in our time at Whereby!)

Progression Tracks FAQ

• Who picks which track I am on? It's a mix between you and your line manager. Spend some time thinking about your strengths, and what you'd like to progress towards, and speak to your line manager in a 1:1.
• Once I pick, can I change? Absolutely - the walls between tracks should be permeable and can change and move at any point. It's important to understand that you could be smashing it across all tracks, but knowing where your strengths are will help you be more aware of what to do next to be successful!
• I just want to manage people, can I just focus on that? When you're in an entry level role e.g. IC 1, we need you to focus on building strong foundations. Of course, you can still work on the competencies you'll need to manage later on, but we'll be assessing your performance based on the expectations of an individual contributor. While you're here, why not take a look at Becoming a People Leader. At a senior management level, we also still expect you to have a strong technical background too, so if you would like to progress beyond being the leader of a small team, you will need to ensure you are working on your skills beyond just that of management.

Further reading

Read more about what an individual contributor is:

Top 4 Characteristics That Make Individual Contributors Indispensable

How to Exhibit Leadership as an Individual Contributor - Tom Bartel