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The irony is that Google actually has a separate eng job ladder (Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure) which is designed to reward that kind of work spec
by Itaxpica 9y ago
The irony is that Google actually has a separate eng job ladder (Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure) which is designed to reward that kind of work specifically. If he had ladder-transferred (a fairly easy process) and gone up before a SETI committee with that same data (peer feedback on stuff like saved development time carries weight that metrics may miss), it probably would have turned out very differently.
- etse 9y agoTransferring ladders seems non-trivial. If you know ahead of time that you are doing "the dirty work", which usually you don't, do you know how long you are going to do it for, and if it makes sense to apply for a transfer? Would your manager approve of your ladder transfer if he/she needs to back-fill your position when a good engineer is hard to find or keep to begin with? (Actually, there are scenarios where a manager wants to keep underperformers from transferring out, too) Lastly, did you really want to be a Tools and Infrastructure engineer to begin with? It started with just being scrappy in order to get the project to a place where you can contribute shiny new features, which everyone is waiting for you to do, yourself included. If you transfer ladders, what are the chances you will be able transfer back in any reasonable amount of time to get credit for doing a good job on what you wanted to work on? Michael's work situation seems prevalent through a Google-like org, and a ladder transfer is unlikely a realistic solution for that.