I think the origin of "Staff, Senior Staff, Principal" came from an attempt to create an IC track. You've been around a while, and you can execute stuff well on your own, where does your career go from there besides manager?
The fact that the assumption was manager is why we have a lot of these problems, tbh. I hate managers who hate managing but that's a separate discussion.
Also funnily enough I was just having a discussion how my company's career ladder explicitly says (in bold!) that promotion is not a reward. If it's not, what is it? What is the reward for hard work and growth, if it isn't that?
Ultimately what I see underlying this article and many like it is an assumption that, at least at an "enlightened" company, politics don't matter. If a company prioritizes low-impact high visibility, that's a stupid company... Yet I've never seen a company free of politics. There will never be a company where your personal assessment of impact of your work matters more than your boss's or their boss's.
We also can't pretend like the amount of work at any given level matches the number of engineers at that level (or who want to be at that level). It just never will. So there will be jockeying for position.
You shouldn't be playing politics all day (a trap I sometimes fall in) but you can't ignore it either. Politics often means justifying your work up the chain, being aware of priorities of those above you etc - it's not just kissing up. Ignore it at your peril.
I worked at a big telco (BT) and they had a super flat structure and a yearly/18 month promotion round that might have 20-25 slots for MPG1 to MPG2 in a division of 40-50k.
MPG1 and MPG2 where the IC grades after that that it was management grades.
You normally had around 18-100 pass the paper shift who then got a board interview.
I played the game and passed the paper shift several times but in the end left the company.
I think the origin of "Staff, Senior Staff, Principal" came from an attempt to create an IC track. You've been around a while, and you can execute stuff well on your own, where does your career go from there besides manager?
The fact that the assumption was manager is why we have a lot of these problems, tbh. I hate managers who hate managing but that's a separate discussion.
Also funnily enough I was just having a discussion how my company's career ladder explicitly says (in bold!) that promotion is not a reward. If it's not, what is it? What is the reward for hard work and growth, if it isn't that?
Ultimately what I see underlying this article and many like it is an assumption that, at least at an "enlightened" company, politics don't matter. If a company prioritizes low-impact high visibility, that's a stupid company... Yet I've never seen a company free of politics. There will never be a company where your personal assessment of impact of your work matters more than your boss's or their boss's.
We also can't pretend like the amount of work at any given level matches the number of engineers at that level (or who want to be at that level). It just never will. So there will be jockeying for position.
You shouldn't be playing politics all day (a trap I sometimes fall in) but you can't ignore it either. Politics often means justifying your work up the chain, being aware of priorities of those above you etc - it's not just kissing up. Ignore it at your peril.