Quick success after getting down leveled
Hi everyone,
I just recently accepted an offer at Google as an L3. The thing is I have 4.5 years of experience full time and have done a number of internships (that I'm not counting in the 4.5). I didn't do super great in the coding rounds and couldn't get cleared for L4 but managed to get approved at L3. The coding rounds (specifically, algorithm optimization) was the specific reason they gave for the down level.
I firmly do believe I'm of L3 level, my manager did as well. I'm not great at leetcode so that part was off but my performance was very good at my previous company and I hope to get promoted to L4 as quickly as possible.
Anyone have advice specific to someone that was down leveled? I see a lot of discussion on a promotion from L3 to L4 in general which I've been reading a lot on. But I was curious about the down leveled case specifically
Also another thing to note - I'm about halfway through the L3 to L4 course and I'd say my skills line up virtually entirely with what Alex is describing as L4 (I used to do a lot of the L3 stuff but have improved). Is this just a matter of coming in and making sure I perform as highly as I can to speed up the process?
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle_logo.png%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Dded981a0-71c9-42a4-a03e-a2299a0a11b8&w=48&q=75){kind=logo}
Discussion
(2 comments)- 22 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Google is notorious for downleveling (I received an L3 offer with 3 years of experience at similar caliber companies)
If you don't have tier 1 Big Tech experience already, Google is great. It's going to unlock many career opportunities for you in the future. If the promo takes longer than you want (e.g. 2+ years), you can simply leave and you'll be considered L4 (mid-level) by every company you interview at.
With that said, Google promotions are also slower to come by :/ And unfortunately, a lot of this is outside your control:
- Google culture promotes slowly, with a requirement to show projects landing
- Google (and most of FAANG) has limited scope since they're mature products.
- You need to build relationships with peers to get promoted which will take time
With that said, your promo to L4 is less reliant on your team/org success, and more to do with completing your work on time with high quality. So that part is in your control!
- 1
2 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroSorry to hear about the downlevel - This is classic Google. And in this economy, it will happen more often. 😢
Your manager will know if you're downleveled, and if they're a good, sympathetic manager, they will fast-track you to promotion (it's in their best incentive to do that because if you're downleveled for too long, you will just leave). However, this won't come for free obviously. You need to follow the advice in Taro of:
- Building a great relationship with your manager
- Working with them to create a clear growth plan
- Actually doing the work (landing impact, showing L4 behaviors deeply and consistently, particularly with code quality)
On top of the L3 -> L4 course, I highly recommend the overall promotion course: [Course] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer
