Promotion Expectation Examples (Good vs. Bad)

In this lesson, we show how vague career frameworks aren’t enough for real growth—and how transforming generic expectations into detailed, personalized criteria creates clarity, direction, and stronger promotion outcomes.

• We explain that most companies’ career matrices are extremely generic (“have broad influence in code review”), making them nearly useless for understanding what to actually do to reach the next level.
• We demonstrate how to replace vague statements with concrete, customized expectations that clearly outline the delta between current level and next level.
• We give an example from Meta: mid-level engineers (E4) typically review code only in their domain, while senior engineers (E5) are expected to review code across unfamiliar modules, broader systems, and even sister teams—showing multiplicative impact.
• We highlight that this level of specificity makes it far easier for us to understand, track, and execute on what “the next level” actually requires.
• We emphasize that crafting a detailed plan also has a perception benefit: it signals seriousness, ownership, and thoughtfulness—making managers more likely to advocate for our promotion.