> She was on a steady track to land a senior role. Even after I decided to leave the company, I let the next manager know this person is track for a senior position in the next few months.
Its very naive to think, that the manager replacing you will see eye to eye with you. I have seen countless occasions, where the engineer in the team who is ontrack for promotion doesnt get it, because the management above has changed.
While being in IC role, I never relied on the company to promote me. Its better to jump ships than reestablish the relationship with new manager. It takes same amount of work anyway. At least jumping ship will give you much higher compensation.
One of the most important lessons I've learned as an engineering manager is to mostly stay away from job titles for developers. There are not many things that sow discord than calling someone Senior when someone else considers themselves better (unless you have a very objective way of defining it).
Too many egos; people who think senior means 3 years of experience; and the idea that there is a clear boundary just make the whole thing hard.
Reward people with a salary that reflects their value to the team, give them feedback, encouragement and challenge.
You and the article author are both right! From the author:
> For example, I didn’t teach her how to advocate for herself or how to navigate the system.
In fact, it takes less energy to advocate for a promotion with a new manager than to jump ship. Ideally, you have a multi-year track record to lean upon at your current company. You'd have no such track record at a new company.
To the author's point, if you put together a persuasive promotion packet, resting upon your accomplishments and past "exceeding expectation" reviews, and make it a priority to repeat how important this is to your new manager, then often you'll get the promotion.
It really depends on the company. Companies like Google and Facebook are very unlikely to hire people at a higher level than their previous level (though certainly it happens). That's easier at smaller companies.
People say this, but I think they mean that you can go from L3 to L4, or L4 to L5. It is very difficult to come in at L6, and it's even relatively hard to come in at L5, where L3 is new college grad.
Also, if you come back within a certain timeframe, you don't have to re-interview, but you also don't get a bump in level. That timeframe is usually a year or so. I'm not sure if they would even allow you to re-interview if you come back within a year, but I'm not sure of that part.
I should also say that I see this claim a lot, but I am on a hiring committee and I have never seen this happen. I'm sure there are some people for which this works, but I think it's more rare than people know. I also suspect that the vast majority of people are leaving at L3, and coming back at L4. If you are good at doing a Google interview and have some experience, it's not that hard to interview at L4 and get in.
Now what I have seen is someone leaving for two or three years and coming back in at a higher level. But that seems like it is based on the experience they gained outside of Google, not that they were necessarily passed over for promotion while at Google.
Now the promo process at Google is the absolutely worst process for promotion I have ever had to endure, so I'm positive that good engineers are passed over on a regular basis. But this idea you leave and come back in a year to get your promo is more myth than reality.
So I’ve def seen someone come back from uber L5->L6 but it’s probably rare (but then L6 itself is relatively rare) and under a year. And I’ve been told by VP that it does happen (I was doubtful too) but needs director? approval. Heard of may cases below L6 though
Congratulations, that's great! There are certainly different paths towards achieving the same goal. I'm sorry you weren't able to get any promotions to work out.
One thing I worry about in such situations is the competence of my colleagues - if everyone got a promotion to take this job, is it a good environment to learn and grow in that role I got newly promoted to?
Its very naive to think, that the manager replacing you will see eye to eye with you. I have seen countless occasions, where the engineer in the team who is ontrack for promotion doesnt get it, because the management above has changed.
While being in IC role, I never relied on the company to promote me. Its better to jump ships than reestablish the relationship with new manager. It takes same amount of work anyway. At least jumping ship will give you much higher compensation.