Name: Your Rating Should Never Be A Surprise
Uploaded: 2025-12-03T21:38:57+00:00
Duration: 3 min 9 s
Description: In this lesson, we explain why your performance rating should never be a negative surprise and how maintaining transpare

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.

In this lesson, we explain why your performance rating should never be a negative surprise and how maintaining transpare