Management vs. Technical Career Path

Midway through their careers, many chemical engineers face a choice between a technical career path and management. This talk is focused on the process one can use to make such a decision from a career lifecycle management perspective. In particular, this talk will cover three sets of factors that should be considered in the decision making process – personal core competencies, critical skills for chosen career path and a fit between career growth expectations and lifestyle choices, also known as work-life balance. It is hoped that the process of thorough evaluation of the choices using a set of rules will impose discipline of System 2 thinking as opposed to relatively effortless System 1 thinking¹.