Creating a Career Ladder for Engineers

One of the biggest challenges in people management is ensuring that your engineers are growing in their career. We expect larger companies to have an established career ladder, but it often gets sacrificed at many companies in the name of remaining “flatter” and “more agile”. As the demand for talent gets more competitive, painting a clear growth path for engineers becomes an asset in any serious engineering organization.

Marco Rogers will give a concrete idea of what a career guide looks like for engineers based on his experience as an engineering leader at multiple companies. There are the big things like creating levels that engineers progress through, and addressing what “Senior” means. He will also touch on the less obvious aspects, such as providing guidance on how to get promoted, and maintaining consistency between internal hiring and external recruiting.

Transcript

1. Creating a Career
   Ladder for Engineers
   :Marco Rogers | @polotek
   #LeadDevNewYork
   

   View Slide

2. :Marco Rogers | @polotek
   ● I’ve been an engineer for 15 years, a
   manager for 7 years
   ● I’ve now created and rolled out career
   ladders at 2 companies
   ● Most of my career as an engineer, I had no
   career ladder
   Hi, I’m Marco.
   

   View Slide

3. Key Takeaways
   The Why
   There is no such thing as
   a “flat” org
   The What
   The Senior level is your
   anchor
   The How
   The messaging and
   rollout is critical
   

   View Slide

4. There is no such thing
   as a “flat” org
   

   View Slide

5. There is no such thing as
   a “flat” org
   Hiring and retaining engineers is quickly
   becoming the top issue in many organizations
   ● Tech is exploding
   ● Our industry is not meeting the demand for engineering
   talent
   ● Engineers (and everyone else) are staying at jobs for less
   and less time
   The Why
   

   View Slide

6. Potential goals for your career
   ladder
   Engagement
   ● Clarity for ICs
   ● Visible paths to
   promotion
   ● Increased retention
   Hiring
   ● Better job descriptions
   ● More consistent offers
   ● Pay equity
   Growth
   ● Tools for managers
   ● Better feedback and
   coaching
   ● Consistent
   performance
   management
   

   View Slide

7. Why engineers choose a company
   ● Innovative technology or product
   ● Great mission or chance to have high impact
   ● Compensation
   ● Career growth
   The Why
   

   View Slide

8. Personal growth is becoming a
   major driver for candidates
   We have been neglecting to provide career growth by trying to
   stay “flat”. We don’t have that luxury anymore.
   People need to see that their career is progressing at your
   company. Otherwise, why would they stay?
   The Why
   

   View Slide

9. Career growth drives engagement
   ● Recognition and rewards are a big part of keeping people
   engaged and making them feel valued
   ● People want to get feedback on whether they are
   successful at the company
   ● You need a structure for giving people both the
   recognition and the coaching that they need
   Announcing a promotion is one of the most engaging cultural
   events that can happen at your company
   The Why
   

   View Slide

10. A tool for management
    A career ladder helps managers be more consistent around:
    ● Feedback and performance reviews
    ● Promotions and compensation
    ● Offers and negotiation
    The Why
    

    View Slide

11. Driving diversity, equity and
    inclusion efforts
    If you’re taking steps towards improving DEI, you need a
    framework to hang that from
    ● Capturing data about who gets promoted and why
    ● Maintaining pay equity between and within levels
    ● Mitigating biases during negotiations
    If you don’t have a visible structure, then you have a hidden
    structure full of assumptions and biases
    The Why
    

    View Slide

12. The Senior level is your
    anchor
    

    View Slide

13. What’s a career ladder?
    ● It specifies what Level an engineer can attain
    ○ Numbers, e.g. L3 engineer
    ○ Titles, e.g. Senior Engineer
    ● Moving up a level is an event that signifies career growth
    ● Promotions usually come with a compensation
    adjustment
    The What
    

    View Slide

14. Some unanswered questions
    ● How many levels? Anywhere from 3 to 9+
    ● Is compensation tied directly to levels? Doesn’t have to be
    ● Do level changes come with more responsibility?
    ● Which level is the “Senior” title? Everyone cares about
    this, and yes you have to decide
    The What
    

    View Slide

15. The Senior level is your
    anchor
    Senior is the only level that anyone understands
    ● The people below Senior aspire to get there and want to
    know how
    ● The people who have reached Senior are proud of it and
    want it known
    ● People with stronger expertise and high impact want to
    know what’s after Senior
    The What
    

    View Slide

16. Let’s look at some career ladders
    ● The Starter Kit
    ● The Snowflake Model
    ● The Spreadsheet Matrix
    The What
    

    View Slide

17. The Starter Kit
    A simple 3-level system. Usually doesn’t come with any
    descriptions or criteria.
    ● Junior or entry level
    ● Mid-level
    ● Senior
    The What
    

    View Slide

18. The Starter Kit
    The What
    

    View Slide

19. The Starter Kit
    Take my advice: This doesn’t scale
    ● You don’t want people to top out at Senior
    ● You don’t want people stuck in an ambiguous middle
    with no way to get promoted
    ● You will almost certainly end up with people making very
    different salaries
    The What
    

    View Slide

20. The Starter Kit
    Intriguing
    ● Easy first step
    ● Good enough when
    team is small
    ● Most people already
    think this way
    Worrying
    ● Not enough room to grow
    ● Not enough definition of
    expectations
    ● Senior people top out
    ● Doesn’t help with
    compensation
    The What
    

    View Slide

21. The Snowflake Model
    A robust system for scoring individuals across many
    dimensions and using a formula to ascertain their level
    ● Popularized by Medium
    ● Each dimension can be scored separately
    ● People can reach the same level with a different
    combination of qualities
    The What
    

    View Slide

22. The Snowflake Model
    The What
    https://medium.com/s/engineering-growth-framework/engineering-growth-introduction-8ba7b78c8d6c
    

    View Slide

23. The Snowflake Model
    Take my advice: Give this the amount of time it takes to get
    right
    Engineers freaking love numbers because they are less
    ambiguous. Once you start using a number system, changing
    the meaning of the numbers renders it worthless.
    The What
    

    View Slide

24. The Snowflake Model
    Intriguing
    ● Lots of granularity
    ● ICs can see clear
    progress
    ● Escapes the rigidity of a
    “ladder”
    ● Engineers freaking love
    numbers
    Worrying
    ● Looks like a major project
    to design
    ● Many decisions to make
    ● Difficult to onboard
    managers?
    ● So many numbers
    The What
    

    View Slide

25. The Spreadsheet Matrix
    One document that captures the expectations for each level
    across several dimensions
    ● Each row is a level
    ● Each column is a particular area of evaluation
    ● The intersecting cell holds the description
    The What
    

    View Slide

26. The Spreadsheet Matrix
    The What
    http://dresscode.renttherunway.com/blog/ladder
    

    View Slide

27. The Spreadsheet Matrix
    Take my advice: Fill in every one of those boxes
    ● Ambiguity is your enemy in this model
    ● Leaving cells blank greatly reduces the effectiveness as a
    coaching tool
    ● Putting in “No expectations at this level” is an acceptable
    decision
    The What
    

    View Slide

28. The Spreadsheet
    Intriguing
    ● Format is easily
    understood
    ● You know when you’re
    done
    ● Can be extended with
    more rows or columns
    Worrying
    ● Can feel too rigid
    ● The descriptions can
    cause confusion
    ● So many boxes to fill in
    The What
    

    View Slide

29. The Senior level is your
    anchor
    Everyone uses Senior to understand where they
    currently are
    ● Spend the time to formalize what it means
    ● Use the levels below it to help people understand how to
    work on growth and autonomy
    ● Use the levels above it to push people towards more
    impact and responsibility
    The Why
    

    View Slide

30. The messaging and
    rollout is critical
    

    View Slide

31. The messaging and
    rollout is critical
    After you develop the ladder, you have to
    execute
    ● Present to execs and get buy-in
    ● Inform partner departments like HR and Recruiting
    ● Message to the entire team, incorporate their input
    ● Place every engineer into their new level
    The How
    

    View Slide

32. The messaging and
    rollout is critical
    Many other policies and activities will intersect
    with your career ladder
    ● Budgets and compensation
    ● Management and Performance reviews
    ● Interviewing and hiring
    The How
    

    View Slide

33. Executive buy-in
    ● Are you creating new compensation bands to go with it?
    ● Does it require a compensation adjustments?
    ● Does it match up with the HR policies around promotions
    or raises?
    ● Does it change the hiring plan?
    The How
    

    View Slide

34. Management and Performance
    Reviews
    ● Every eng manager needs to become familiar with the
    ladder
    ● You will need some period of calibration so it can be
    applied consistently
    ● Performance reviews will shift to revolve around the
    ladder
    ● Managers will start to get some very tough questions, e.g.
    “I thought I was Senior”
    The How
    

    View Slide

35. Interviewing and hiring
    ● Talk about your career ladder with candidates
    ● Your interviews need to assess the level of candidates
    ● Make the level clear in offer letters
    ● Talk to candidates about their level before they accept
    The How
    

    View Slide

36. Key Takeaways
    The Why
    There is no such thing as
    a “flat” org
    The What
    The Senior level is your
    anchor
    The How
    The messaging and
    rollout is critical
    

    View Slide

37. Thank You!
    MARCO ROGERS
    @polotek
    linkedin.com/in/marcorogers
    

    View Slide