Chapter 1 of 8 · 4 practices · 4 min · 3-question quiz
Understand how career ladders work
Most companies describe each level in writing. Read yours, learn what changes between levels, and stop guessing what senior means.
Start: Find and read your company's career ladder, line by line4 practices in this chapter
- 1Find and read your company's career ladder, line by lineA career ladder (also called a career framework or leveling guide) describes what the company expects at each level. It is the closest thing you have to the rules of the game, yet many engineers…
- 2Learn that levels differ mainly in scope, ambiguity and reachLadders rarely say "write more code" at higher levels. They describe a wider area of ownership, more ambiguous problems and influence that reaches further. The Dropbox framework shows the pattern…
- 3Treat senior as a level you can stay at, not a waiting roomMany ladders have a career level: a level that most engineers are expected to reach and where many stay for the rest of their careers, doing excellent work. Dropbox's promotion guidelines say it…
- 4Compare roles by expectations, not by titles or level numbers"Senior" at a five-person startup and "Senior" at a large company can mean very different scope. Level numbers are not comparable either: one company's L4 is another's L5. Even inside one company…
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