Promotion is one of the most difficult and nuanced topics, so there's no way any course can absolutely cover 100% of all possible scenarios. If you have any questions about the course, please ask them here! I'm happy to talk about: What gaps you may have to get to the next level How to create additional scope in your team Whether a prospective team you're considering looks good for promotion Why you're getting stuck at your current level Maintaining that dialog with your manager about promotion

Ugh, this sounds so messy. In this case, you definitely need to escalate, especially as you aren't E6 (or better yet, E7). In other words, you need to rope in your manager (and probably your skip too) and have them apply pressure. Make sure to compile as much proof as possible though to show them that you aren't just complaining for no reason. Showing empathy for the other side (even if you don't have any) is important as well (e.g. I know this XFN team is stretched, but...). If the manager is not helpful (especially if they're giving you a response like Well, it's up to you to figure this out), then it's probably time to switch teams 😥

Ask The Instructor: [Course] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer

Alex Chiou (Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero)2 years ago

Alex Chiou

Editor's Choice

Promotion

Promotion is one of the most difficult and nuanced topics, so there's no way any course can absolutely cover 100% of all possible scenarios. If you have any questions about the course, please ask them here! I'm happy to talk about:

What gaps you may have to get to the next level
How to create additional scope in your team
Whether a prospective team you're considering looks good for promotion
Why you're getting stuck at your current level
Maintaining that dialog with your manager about promotion

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44 Comments

Discussion

(4 comments)

0
Supportive Tarodactyl
•Taro Community
a year ago
Thanks for the amazing course! The project credit section was especially enlightening for me.

What's your advice on aligning a team that doesn't see eye-to-eye with yours? For example, I was working with 2 platform teams that over-promised and under-delivered. They delivered poorly documented and very buggy implementations that my team had to build on top of, resulting in significant delays. They refused to test their code before marking it as done, so their mobile & BE implementations were often incompatible even within their own teams.

My project's overall DRI (E6 BE) ended up switching teams halfway through the project, so the project became a total mess. Our other BE engineer resigned a month before the E6 switched teams, so we had no BE engineers on this project at one point. I was the project's mobile DRI (E5), but also jumped in to do BE to try to save the project before we were able to eventually onboard another BE engineer. We finally delivered the 3-month project 3 months behind schedule, but I was so burnt out by the death march over the last 6 months that I asked to be taken off the project as soon as we had hit our 1st milestone.
- 1
  Alex Chiou [OP]
  •Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
  a year ago
  Ugh, this sounds so messy. In this case, you definitely need to escalate, especially as you aren't E6 (or better yet, E7). In other words, you need to rope in your manager (and probably your skip too) and have them apply pressure. Make sure to compile as much proof as possible though to show them that you aren't just complaining for no reason. Showing empathy for the other side (even if you don't have any) is important as well (e.g. "I know this XFN team is stretched, but...").
  
  If the manager is not helpful (especially if they're giving you a response like "Well, it's up to you to figure this out"), then it's probably time to switch teams 😥
0
Collaborative Tarodactyl
•Taro Community
13 days ago
Hello! Thanks for the course, it was extremely valuable. I’m almost 2 years into my role and want to start “Clarify Expectations & Plans” with my manager to work deliberately toward the next level. What’s the best way to frame that convo now, what artifacts should I bring (promotion plan, success metrics), and how often should we checkpoint? I’ve been performing well in my role (strong performance reviews and consistent delivery)
- 0
  Alex Chiou [OP]
  •Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
  12 days ago
  Good question! I recommend going through the lesson here: https://www.jointaro.com/course/nail-your-promotion-as-a-software-engineer/talk-to-your-manager/
  
  The core idea is that you want to frame this as a mutual benefit: I want to become a better teammate who has more impact, and you as a manager want a team that's overall more efficient and collaborative.
  
  Since you have put in ~2 years now into the team and have a track record of solid performance, this dialogue will most likely be taken in good faith as opposed to a greedy ask.
  
  The artifacts to bring into this conversation should just be stuff that comes from performance review like peer feedback, launch announcements, product metrics, etc.
  
  When it comes to promotion, I think having a deeper check-in every ~3 months is fairly standard. And of course, you should ask your manager if they have any feedback for you every 2-4 weeks (every 1 on 1 might feel exhausting).