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Research is a career path, not a level. As levels go up, each new level is a new job. In the SWE track: L3 is a new graduate L4 is mid level (an engineer wh
by Arainach 4y ago
Research is a career path, not a level.
As levels go up, each new level is a new job.
In the SWE track:
L3 is a new graduate
L4 is mid level (an engineer who you can generally trust to complete the tasks they're assigned)
L5 is Senior (who owns/shapes the direction of the team)
L6 is Staff (who has to see upcoming problems and shape efforts across the organization)
L7 shapes a product
L8 shapes a division
L9 shapes an industry
The expectations are sky high, but so are the comp. If you want to get millions, you'd better do something worth millions.
- tete 4y agoHuh. So L7-L9 are L3s that are good at marketing and slap the Google badge on everything they do? Well, I guess that explains both why they fire them and why golang.org became go.dev.
- lopiar_zen 4y agoFrom your ranking, L9 seems to not depend on the company anymore, looks more research. You cannot expect to shape/redefine industry every year, that's absurd. By this model every math/physics/chemistry research teacher should be fired every year. And to be honest I don't think google has these expectations. Most probably he was was fired for different reasons, not performance
- Arainach 4y agoResearch is theoretical. These roles are very much practical. These are the kind of people who drive partnerships across companies, lead important industry standards, and come up with ideas for entire new markets and products. This is not a job everyone wants or is capable of doing. There are a very limited number of such positions, and those who want them must justify the position's existence.
- akostadinov 4y agoYeah, but if you have to lead a standard, it may take years and it sucks a lot of time. So can you, while trying to direct 15 other possibly clueless people, disrupt the industry in another way?