What are the signals that staff promos are not viable in current org/team?
I have been with my current team (a platform team) for about almost 3 years now, and I believe I have build good relationships with others in the org. I am thinking about projects that can get me to E6.
So far, the projects that I come up with, feels underwhelming after talking to more senior IC. The IC either think there the ROI is not high enough, or the project is too much of BE. For other ideas, it feels like that I would have scope collision with other ICs. I sometimes feels too tired to churn through more ideas. I am not sure if this is normal, or if I would be able to succeed in my current team to get to E6. How would you decide it is time to change teams?
Discussion
(2 comments)- 2
a month agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroA rising tide lifts all boats.
It's pretty rare to have a team where it's just an isolated 1-2 people getting promoted every year due to sheer talent (especially at Meta as most Meta engineers are pretty good). If a team works well together and has good scope, you will naturally see a lot of promos across all levels (E4 -> E5, E5 -> E6, E6 -> E7). This was the case for me at Instagram Ads where I saw many cases of lightning-fast promos (E3 -> E5 in 2.5 years, E5 -> E6 in 1 year, E6 -> E7 in 1.5 years).
So if everyone on your team is just sort of staying the same, that's a sign that its scope is stale and E6 promo will be hard.
Tactically though, make sure to talk with your manager and understand your trajectory. In general, if you have progress, you're in good shape and it's just a matter of time. For example, if your ratings have been something like MA -> MA+ -> EE -> GE-, you will probably get the E6 promo within the next 2 halves. If it's something like MA -> MA+, EE, MA+, then you're just sort of bouncing around.
When it comes to resources, I recommend the following:
- [Course] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer - Use this to understand the general mechanics of promotion, particularly how project credit is assigned. Of course, go through the table-stakes as well like crafting a growth plan and maintaining that dialogue with your manager
- [Course] Grow From Senior To Staff Engineer: L5 To L6 - After you go through the foundational knowledge from the overall promotion course, use this to concretely understand the delta between E5 and E6
- 2a month agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
I am thinking about projects that can get me to E6.
I don't know exactly what's going on, but this statement feels to me like you're trying to create scope from scratch instead of organically extending it. This is something I've seen hundreds of E5s hit a wall with. Check out this senior -> staff lesson in particular for advice on what to try instead: https://www.jointaro.com/course/grow-from-senior-to-staff-engineer-l5-to-l6/create-scope/
For more examples of creating E6 scope, check out this very detailed explainer: "How can I come up with big initiatives, especially those at a Staff level?"
