We all know downleveling can happen. But is it possible for the opposite to happen? Can you perform so well in an interview that you're offered a level higher than your YOE would normally dictate? At lots of companies different levels have slightly different interview formats (e.g. greater emphasis on system design versus coding). Is it possible for a recruiter to enter someone into interviews for a level they wouldn't ordinarily be considered for judging by their YOE? As a hypothetical illustrating this - what would happen if a recruiter at Facebook accidentally slotted someone with 2 YOE for interviews at the E6 level and they absolutely crushed them? If Facebook didn't offer the person the role, is that an indictment of the interviewing criteria not meaningfully correlating to YOE in either direction? EDIT: Note I'm specifically talking about cases where you perform disproportionately well relative to the interviewers' expectations - not cases where you get upleveled due to the mismatch of titles/levels between companies.
Yes, happens often when you move to down level company.
At faang probably not since they all have schematic interview process. At small-mid size companies HM have more discretion so they might put you at higher level.
So let's say we have a TopCoder Red developer with 2 YOE, who successfully designed and launched a software product in college. How would this person be slotted for interviews at Amazon? This person could likely pass interviews at the SDE3 level despite being barely eligible for SDE2.
If someone launched a successful product in college then probably sde3. If you’re highly published PhD grad, that created multiple popular large open source applications in their free time, you would be interviewing for principal without any YOE. No one gives a shit about topcoder.
Prob 1/100 at google - of those that actually clear the hiring committee.
So you're saying upleveling is a thing that actually does happen, just rarely?
Yes. Very rarely. You need to get all optimal solutions, all follow-ups, and have a solid career prior (FANG).
Yes I've had employees 3 so far this year who were upleveled and ecstatic when they learned they were going to make much more than originally discussed.
I saw people crushing interviews got top of the band offer (some can even get one time exception), but rarely uplevel. Generally TC is more flexible but leveling is fixed
Happened to me at a series c start up. Went in for data scientist, got offered lead data scientist position.
Not the only data scientist here either.
Yes. I have twice. I've also been offered downlevel but did not and would not take it.
It happens but it's rare. It happened to me, actually
Company will always prefer to downlevel - if you really are that good, then you will earn a very quick promotion.
Well yes, but that's not exactly the question. The question I'm getting at is twofold: 1) What actually happens if someone basically walks on water during all of their interview rounds, 2) More fundamentally speaking, if someone could theoretically nail high level interviews without the requisite YOE, how is that not a compelling indictment of the interview process itself?
Quick promotion depends not on your performance, but the team and the company process to promote people. Also how many more people are already in pipeline. It's stupid to expect to get promoted if you are going to join a team which already had a product and only work being done is big fixes and some features