Tech IndustryOct 11, 2022
Newundevrpaid

Senior with <2 YOE?

TL;DR I do more than all the senior engineers on my team, both in terms of deliverables as well as ownership. Should I push for a promo with < 2 YOE (I can negotiate it because I have been ticking all senior engineer boxes for a while now) ---- read edits at the bottom I work at a startup that's not very well known. We are a team of about 400 people with 100+ engineers. I'm a frontend engineer and our tech stack is mostly JS and a frontend framework. We have a separate team for UI that writes the markup using HTML/SCSS. #question: is this a problem? I'm not well versed in HTML/CSS as a frontend engineer. I have been promoted once in last 6 months (from L1 to L2, L3 is senior). I might be on track for senior promo soon, but have just ~1.5 YoE. Why I think I deserve the promo? In the past 8 months, I have delivered two very high impact product lines that will have a significant impact on the company's outlook. At the start I was just a junior engineer. But even then I spearheaded all effort for the frontend side for the two projects, all on my own (I wasn't asked to do it), and took complete ownership not just of my own work but across the team as well. I didn't do it for promo, just like taking ownership of whatever I do. My manager has praised me several times not just for my work, but also for my overall ownership of the projects. Most of that may be because of the fact that my heavy lifting has allowed for a lot of breathing space for them :p Should I talk to my manager about it. They might be able to help me with it? #frontend #javascript #tech #promotion #vue Edit1: for those thinking I got played: I'm a workaholic who cant rest well if my work isn't all done before time. If they don't promote me for the next 5 years I would still work the same way. I didn't even do it for promo. I was the same in college as well, always taking 2 more courses than the average student on my classmate. Ended with 20% more credits than what was required for the degree. edit2: I realize that the title itself outside the company has no intrinsic value. I understand that I will barely make it to L3 in Google/E4 in Meta even if I get to senior here. But I'm not optimizing for that as we don;t have big tech where I live; I can move to EU, but cant do that due to personal reasons for the next couple of years at least.

Flexport UAlN24 Oct 11, 2022

Yea, you can do it!

Flexport UAlN24 Oct 11, 2022

Get an offer from another team within MS, if the current team won’t try you for a promo then move to another team.

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hungyboi Oct 11, 2022

you played yourself not only did you do more than you were supposed to, you did that without getting paid for the extra work At this point your team and manager have expected a certain level of output from you and know they can just pay you the same since you’ll just do it for them Highly surprised if you get a promotion, at this point I’d just leave if I was seeking compensation

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undevrpaid OP Oct 11, 2022

haha maybe but I didn't do it for the promo, could have easily been promoted from L1 to L2 sooner but I never bothered talking to my manager about it. They just waited for me to complete a year and then gave it to me

Meta macebook Oct 11, 2022

This mentality is toxic. OP has <2 YOE and you're telling him to play politics with his time. Nah OP did good. There are some jrs on my team that work very hard. They should be compensated for it. Thing is... They don't realize how bad their code is. It's really just a placeholder until they leave and we rewrite it. So I think they should be rewarded for their effort, but I don't think they should be in a position to make senior decisions that affect the whole org (yet)

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confused☹️ Oct 11, 2022

probably inflating your self worth tbh. But if it's a small company where titles aren't worth much then yeah go for it! At the end of the day, TC > titles

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undevrpaid OP Oct 11, 2022

The titles are worth a lot, but I feel the bar within the frontend team is not that high. And no one in the team has done 2 high impact projects like I have, not even the senior/staff engineers. Why I think the bar is low? We have a set of requirements for each level that must be met in order for us to get promoted. I have ticked all those requirements, which includes mentoring at least one junior engineer. Usually people with <2 YOE dont even get to mentor someone. But I was able to train one new guy who joined the team I was on when I had just 1 YOE. I got to train him as others had left so I was the only frontend dev on that team, so got lucky in a way.

Thomson Reuters QFBB74 Oct 11, 2022

Go for it.

Amazon HGdTrS Oct 11, 2022

Yeah don’t be over inflated man. Even with senior title from a not well known company with 2 -3 yoe, what can you do with that? Do you expect other big techs will offer you an senior role? They probably even debating if you are an entry level or not…

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undevrpaid OP Oct 11, 2022

Yeah I understand that. My sample space right now is not big tech. Where I live we don't even have any engineering presence of big tech. I have the option to go to EU and work there in big tech but for some personal reasons I can't leave the country right now. so my question is from the perspective of some small companies/ unicorns at best. The startup I work for is also a unicorn

Credit Karma PhamTrinli Oct 11, 2022

Sounds like title inflation there so go for it. But don’t be surprised if you get down leveled when you switch jobs.

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undevrpaid OP Oct 11, 2022

that I'm fine with. I understand that I will barely make it to L3 in Google/E4 in Meta even if I get to senior here