The DevDiv org at Microsoft definitely had an up or out strategy, I believe there either was not an upper-limit or it was level 65. My understanding is that Goo

The DevDiv org at Microsoft definitely had an up or out strategy, I believe there either was not an upper-limit or it was level 65. My understanding is that Google has an up or out as well, which tops out at level 5 (lower than Microsofts). The issue with the up-or-out at Microsoft was that it was incredibly hard to hire better devs than the ones being forced out (counter-argument- you are supposed to be hiring on future potential). This was seriously compounded by the amount of legacy code- new hires either wanted nothing to do with it, or wanted to replace it en-masse without understanding the requirements. The up or out became yet another puzzle piece during the review cycle- if you did not give someone a promo then you would be pressured to cut them loose.