My Engineering Career Ladder Observations and Assumptions

I want to cover some of my basic assumptions and observations about general engineering career growth, as I’ve found over the years that they are not a ‘given’ in others’ understanding.

• The distance between, and impact required to go from, one level to the next in a career ladder is non-linear. You have to show a greater impact to go from Senior Engineer to Staff Engineer, than from Associate Software Engineer to Software Engineer, for example
• Titles don’t mean the same thing at different places — the only thing that matters, for advancement purposes, is the definitions of each level at the company you’re in
• The needs of companies vary with company stage — early stages require fast iteration, later stages require scale/maturation. Not everyone can do, or is happy at, all stages.
• You can be working hard and be important to the company, but that doesn’t necessarily imply advancement. It is not a ‘fail’ to get a ‘Meets Expectations’ rating and from Senior Software Engineer and up, it’s not a fail (from my perspective) not to be advancing once you’re at that level.
• Advancement doesn’t come just with the passing of time — it comes with greater achievement/impact
• You are the one driving your career/growth — a good manager will help and coach, but if you are not actively working on your career then nothing will change. If you are not doing anything different day-to-day a year from now, then you should not assume big changes in advancement
• You get promoted when you’re operating at the next level — you don’t get promoted on potential or a belief (even a strong one) that you’ll get to the next level
• Moving up the career ladder generally means broader impact — you’re operating across more products, technology, teams, and people, and the time horizon for your thinking and actions extends out further
• It’s your manager’s job to clearly let you know where you stand — performance and advancement conversations can be difficult — the best managers will be compassionately honest, rather than avoid a difficult conversation. There’s nothing I enjoy more than seeing someone grow/advance and I’m not doing you any favours if I’m candy-coating opportunities for growth.
• The past is the past — Future outcomes only rely on the present and future actions