When we talk about promotion, we often imagine the default path: from a team member to a manager. Becoming a manager is the obvious path if you’re a good employee who wants to grow in the company. Having said that, not everyone can be a good manager, and – surprise surprise – not all of us want to be managers.

We’re familiar with this issue here at monday. One of our very first developers almost resigned after he got promoted to an exciting role: leading the R&D. From someone who was excited to get to work every morning, he found himself wondering if he was in the right place. It led us as a company to look for a solution. That’s how we ran into the term “IC” – Individual Contributor.

But what does “IC” really mean? How can we create this kind of path in our company? Why would a company want to invest resources in creating this kind of path? And what does it have to do with a Canadian teacher born in 1919? We answered all of it with the help of the developer we mentioned above, but not only: in this episode you’ll find another IC beside him, an HR VP, and an organizational psychologist – all helped us to better understand the path that helps both employee and employer.