Chapter 1 · Practice 1 of 4
Find and read your company's career ladder, line by line
Why it matters
A 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 never read theirs.
If your company has one, read your current level and the next one side by side and mark the differences. If it has none, read a public one so you have a shared vocabulary. The Dropbox Engineering Career Framework is a good reference because it is detailed and open: it lists levels from IC1 Software Engineer to IC7 Senior Principal Software Engineer and groups expectations under four pillars: Results, Direction, Talent and Culture.
| Question | Where the ladder answers it |
|---|---|
| What is expected of me now? | Your current level |
| What does the next step look like? | The next level up |
| How is impact judged? | Overview or "what is impact" section |
| How do promotions work? | Promotion principles or guidelines |
Do
- Read your level and the next one side by side
- Ask your manager which lines matter most for your team
Avoid
- Guessing what the next level means from job titles alone