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Career ladders are wishful thinking and an easy way to undervalue contributions. They imply that professional development largely occurs along a single axis ra
by dpritchett 16y ago
Career ladders are wishful thinking and an easy way to undervalue contributions. They imply that professional development largely occurs along a single axis rather than multiple ones.
Who's worth more, Peter Norvig or Marissa Mayer? What about an overachieving SWE I vs an mailing-it-in SWE III?
- kenjackson 16y agoWho's worth more, Peter Norvig or Marissa Mayer? Who's paid more? Who has the better title? Who's worth more a very strong CTO of Google or an overachieving SWE I? Presumably with title comes responsibility befitting the title.
- clr 16y agoThe worst part about career ladders at Microsoft was that it put people who were great engineers but terrible, terrible managers in positions of authority, because there was only one advancement path. When I left,they were just starting to create a career ladder for individual achievers, because they had finally realized this. I don't know if it actually ever happened.
- bmalicoat 16y agoDunno when you left, but you can go up many levels as an IC currently.
- pyrhho 16y agoAdditionally, poorly structured career ladders can to lead to "Promotion Until Incompetence", where people are repeatedly promoted until they are unable to warrant another promotion. Thus, everyone is stuck at a level of mild incompetence.