> engineering is more than writing code, and senior-levels of engineering even more so. Google's higher engineering ladder rungs are defined more by scope of i

> engineering is more than writing code, and senior-levels of engineering even more so. Google's higher engineering ladder rungs are defined more by scope of influence than the excellence or profusion of individual code. At higher levels, engineers will tend to spend more time communicating with and influencing other people. Some people are happy to stop at level 4 or 5, where they can mostly do their own thing. They can do good work, they can feel they have time for 20% projects, and (to some extent?) they can keep getting raises and bonuses.