> This comes across more like assessing candidates for hire based on ego or confidence rather than actual skills. Our hire/no-hire policy is only based on comp

> This comes across more like assessing candidates for hire based on ego or confidence rather than actual skills. Our hire/no-hire policy is only based on competence, however true competence includes the capacity for realistic self-assessment. Keep in mind that our skill scale, especially for core skills, goes from "I could be better" to "I am world famous for this skill", so it's fairly easy to prove or disprove whether someone is at the top of the ladder. > If you would object to the skills evaluations, and if we assume some of those people are earning more than you, how is that different than "salary envy"? Big caveat: this works for us, but of course each company is different. Our skills are based on measurable stuff and generally do not represent a "career achievement". An employee can't say "I'm better than Marco, so I should be paid more". An employee might say "This year I've done better than Marco at SQL, but Marco has a better score in it, can you review mine?". In most cases, we simply look at the evidence: has the employee actually been better than Marco in the last year in doing SQL? Also keep in mind that there's a huge gap between categories. We've four, B, A, A+, A+++. They start at "B" which means that someone did not do much on that skill in the past year. For example, I've got a B in sysadmin stuff which I never need to do. In order to get an "A" one needs to be completely proficient in the skill, no obvious gaps, so for example I've (IIRC) an A in SQL, which means I can do SQL as well as anyone else in the team. In order to be "A+" one needs to be really good at the skill, someone that is recognized in the team for it, if I were to get it for SQL I'd need to go above and beyond the average. Patrol SQL for misbehaving query plans. Perform DBA tasks. Et cetera. An A+++ means that one is actually famous for the skill, for example a Microsoft MVP, or a famous blogger, etc. A guru level of skill is needed in SQL. Probably something which would take me 10 years to achieve.