Hey there! In the previous post, we talked about some of the main concepts regarding promotions in this tech. In this post, I'll go into a bit more detail on some of the more important concepts and definitions you need to know when you're having a conversation about promotions with your manager. Keep reading to learn more!
It’s worth noting that every company has its own criteria for promotions for different levels and ladders. That means they also define success in different ways. This is why it’s crucial to make sure you have this conversation with your manager about the expectations and make sure you are all aligned.
With that said, there are a few generic concepts you need to be aware of.
How do promotion documents look like?
In most companies, a promotion document can refer to the document that you maintain with your manager detailing your progress during the given performance cycle period, which may span either six months or a year. It also serves as foundational reference utilized by your managers to build a compelling case for your promotion.
Depending on your company, there will be different criteria that are used to assess your level and how you are performing on the level you are at. A key expectation for an engineer to be promoted is to be behaving and working at the level they are going to be promoted to for a period of time. Most companies will have timelines like this:
From Fresh Grad level to Junior (i.e. new hire to software engineer): Around 6 months of demonstration that you are operating at a junior level.
From Junior to Senior (for example IC4 → IC5), normally any time from 6 months to 1 year.
From Senior to above (IC6+), normally 1-2 years, depending on the company and the level.
The key principle is that your manager can effectively demonstrate that you can operate and deliver as per the established criteria for a consistent period of time. It’s normal due to multiple reasons (internal and external) that your performance level will fluctuate; you will have periods of very high-performance quarters, and there will be quarters where you will be struggling, and that’s expected. The essential aspect is to consistently exhibit that you demonstrate the behaviors of target level for a sustained period of time. indicating you will be able to at least function and deliver without needing a lot of extra support in your target level.
How does criteria looks like?
That basically varies significantly from one company to another. This is why it's crucial to make sure that you are aligned and clear on what's expected of you. There's also another variance depending on the area of your work. For example:
Infrastructure engineers/Production engineers: Your performance is very engineering-centric. The key performance metrics are resolve around optimizing systems rather than products, with factors such as people management and cross-functional collaboration (XFN work) typically carrying less weight in the evaluation process.
Product engineers: This is more complex because, in general, the life cycle of a product is defined by multiple areas where engineering is just one facet. Consequently the project you work on for a quarter, half, or more can face failure for reasons unrelated to the engineering component. How you handle that setback is definitely an area that plays a lot of impact on your performance reviews, particularly if you faced multiple failed projects within a given quarter. For product engineers, the communication aspect is very crucial and has a lot of weight in your performance review, For example: people management, XFN work, communication skills, and presentation skills.
With that said, it's clear that the criteria per position, domain, and company vary widely. But I will discuss three main criteria that you will most likely see in a lot of promotion and performance reviews.
Deliverables
That metric will be used to track your actual work during the performance period. The primary components will be your actual projects and how much impact they may have had.
For any project you will be including in this section, you will need to include a few main aspects:
The scope: How big was that project, and how many people were included? Was it just a refactor of a service, a migration, or a massive project that included working with 4-5 different teams to get it done? Depending on the level you are aspiring to, emphasizing the scope of the project is of great importance because you need to show that you were able to handle 1-2 projects of your target level during that quarter.
The metrics: For every project, there's either a clear metric you are trying to optimize (latency time, CTR, user acquisition) or a not-so-clear use case. If the project lacks well-defined key performance indicators (KPIs), you will have to understand the impact of your project by defining your own metrics and analyzing the reasons for hitting or missing those targets. The main goal is to list the set of those metrics in a manner that shows a clear impact of your projects and not just a superficial way that may seem impressive but not aligned with the overarching goals of the team, organization and the company.
Future work: Normally a bonus, but definitely a must if you are aiming to be promoted for (Senior+) levels. The main part of this section is to show what are the key learnings of the successes or failures of the project and including any follow-up initiatives in the next few quarters. By doing so, you convey that you possess a forward-looking vision that extend beyond mere execution and demonstrating the ability to think strategically and proactively contribute to the goals of your team, organization and company.
Innovation
This section should include all the innovative work you have done during the performance cycle.
Innovation is quite tough to define, especially since some teams such as Research and Development (R&D) may have more opportunities than teams focusing on infrastructure.
The main section should contain:
What problem you were trying to tackle during that period and why it was especially difficult.
What your intended way of solving it - in an innovative way - looked like. Was it implementing a new framework, a new algorithm, or applying a new research method?
What were the results?
Given the nature of innovation, it’s important to highlight that the projects will be assessed on novelty and creativity rather than focusing on the tangible deliverables. It is understood that most of those projects will go nowhere, but trying new methods enables documenting those outcomes for future projects or teams.
It’s also worth noting that sometimes innovation can extend beyond technical projects and may involve processes you see as problematic in your company or organization. I have seen a lot of successful promotions based on creating or modifying processes of engineering practices that ended up saving the company thousands of dollars (a very positive signal on your promotion application).
People’s axis
The name definitely doesn’t look very indicative, but in general, that section is to document everything that is not engineering-based.
The key aspect is to understand how you communicate with other team members and other teams. Some components of that section can be:
Onboarding new team members.
Coming up with possible internship projects and support interns to deliver them.
Interviewing for the company.
Communication skills with other teams (mostly measured using the other team’s feedback about your communication).
Most engineers tend to forget about those, thinking they are not as important as the engineering-related sections, while in reality, this is extremely important, especially for Senior+ where you are supposed to be leading a lot of discussions across different organizations and teams.
That’s enough for today! I've realized that this series has even more information than I initially anticipated when I started writing it.
In the next few parts, I will discuss some more important topics related to how to effectively communicate with your manager and gauge your progress on the right track, making sure your promotion goals are moving in the correct direction.
Additionally, I'll be starting a new series where I'll share real-life stories of successful promotions as well as lessons learned from disappointments. Stay tuned for more valuable insights to help you navigate your career growth!