Your Rating Should Never Be A Surprise

In this lesson, we explain why your performance rating should never be a negative surprise and how maintaining transparent, ongoing conversations with your EM prevents career-derailing outcomes.

• We emphasize that if you expect “meets” and end up on a PIP, something has gone catastrophically wrong—and it’s almost always preventable through proactive communication.
• We recommend regularly asking for a hypothetical rating (“If you had to rate me today, what would it be?”) while explicitly acknowledging it’s not a guarantee—this makes managers comfortable giving candid signals.
• We highlight that good managers are usually 80–90% accurate with these hypothetical ratings, giving you strong insight into where you truly stand.
• We note that engineers who avoid this conversation out of discomfort effectively “walk themselves off a cliff” by choosing to stay in the dark.
• We reinforce that building trust through vulnerability, consistency, and strong 1:1 habits unlocks your manager’s willingness to give honest performance signals—ensuring you’re never blindsided.