> 1.) Scope and headcount. It's really all about headcount - that is the qualification for being a Director. Increased scope is how you get the headcount.
Scope != headcount, in matrix orgs (like big tech) there are directors with very small orgs (5-10 people)
But you typically don't get to be a director with an org of 5-10 people, at least not in engineering, which OP indicated he's in. (It's different in other functions. PM/UX directors frequently have 10-15 people under them, and my wife is a deputy director in finance and has 2 reports. Her boss is the director and has 3 indirects, just her and her reports. I joke that their management chain really is a chain. Startups are also different - I once interviewed for a VP role at a startup that had 8 employees.)
For that promotion to director, you usually need at least 50 reports and at least 2 levels of management. And then the span of responsibility for (senior) director goes on up to about 500 reports. It's not unusual to have directors with less than that - but usually that is because they once had a big org, their scope and responsibility decreased in some re-org, but upper management is keeping them around so they have a deep leadership bench. Another re-org and they can easily end up with 500+ people again.
Well I got to director in big tech with an org about 35 people and now I have around 15 people but bigger scope, and others have done with similar numbers too. Depends on the culture I guess, some cultures are all about empire building, others about impact / scope
Why do you think time or your management experience would put you in path on director instead of others ? This question is very hard to answer without a lot of context. The TLDR is that you haven't been performing at director level or there's no need for another director in the org you are in
Unless I'm mistaken, you can transfer employers on an H1-B, and you have 90 days to find a new job if you get laid off. On an L1 you are immediately out of status when your employment is terminated, with no option of transfer
I had one that I enjoyed many years ago, to write a service that calculated the Nth digit of Pi.
It was up to you what you wanted to do / how / if you wanted to deploy. They only asked that you write how you would've liked to receive such service from another org.
Then in the day of the in person interview we reviewed my code / README / tests ; was very nice.
Scope != headcount, in matrix orgs (like big tech) there are directors with very small orgs (5-10 people)