Got asked a super interesting question by a former engineer this morning:
> Why is it that when you get promoted within the same company to Senior, you 99 out of 100 don't get paid as close as someone who joins from external?
I thought I knew the answer...
What is your take?
Promoting within is much lower risk, high return. The person already has a lot of goodwill in the org. The person is already onboarded. The person already knows all the processes and culture.
Hiring from outside is much higher risk, low return. The person doesn't know the culture. There is a high change of team incompatibility issues. There will be a big cost of ramp-up and onboarding ahead that might take months or years.
Yet, how many solid engineers do you know that got a 100% total comp. increase after promotion? Zero.
How many okay engineers do you know that got a job in a new company (Big Tech or not) and got a 200% total comp increase? Many.
Why is that?
My Theory. In most cases: On your current company, everything is based on your current baseline comp, not on the total compensation of your next level.
That is why is so critical to never share with the recruiter how much you are currently making.
Otherwise, you will be constrained by it. I guarantee. I made this mistake many many times.
There is not a single case that when I shared my salary and that information wasn't used against me throughout the interview process.
The only time that I was able to correct this mistake was when I had multiple competing offers. Otherwise, everything would be baselined on my current comp.
That is also my theory why you will almost never see someone getting a 100% salary increase after a promotion.
The 5 Engineering Leadership Levels of Ownership in Code Review/PR Comments (How do you lead by example on PR reviews?)
🚼 Level 1 - Complain Generally. “This is a piece of s***"
continue...🧵🧵🧵
🚶Level 2- Complain Specifically / Pin Point the issue, but leave it as it is. “This method is not as functional as it could be. It is not testable:"
🏃Level 3- Propose a Solution Forward. “This method is not as functional as it could be. It is not testable, you can use this tool to do this. Here is an example: xxxx:"
Try to do it right after 15 minutes of meditation first thing in the morning.
Why does it work?
After 15 minutes of meditation trying to not follow your thoughts, it is almost impossible not to have things to journal about.
For the first time in my life I have been able to journal for 10 days in roll.
For years I have been reading 1 chapter of a book as the first thing in my morning routine.
A mistake I made many times was try to journal as the first thing in the day when I had nothing in mind, didn't work. I often had nothing to write about or felt it was dumb to write only what I was grateful for for instance.
I'm in love with the "10 Keystones of Personal Development for Staff-Plus Engineers" that @Lethain listed on his new book.
🧵 Thread 🧵
1) Work on what matters: to make the most of the working hours you have, particularly as you get further along in your career and life's commitments expand.
2) Write an engineering strategy: to guide your organization's approach to supporting your company's business objectives with its architecture, technology selection, and organizational structure.