The golden diagonal resume
I’ve interviewed countless and hired ~15 people across 2 FAANG companies. This is my prescribed golden resume to maximize your career growth. I’m well aware that levels are murky between (and sometimes within) companies, don’t take this overly literally and apply some common sense. Golden Diagonal Resume “ 2 year jumps, with N positions for N level. Once you have directs. 3 years jumps with N-1 positions per N level. “ This works out for an IC path Swe1 (2) Swe 2 (2) Swe 2 (2) Senior (2) Senior (2) Senior (2) Staff (2) & repeat probably the rest of your career The manager path (starting from ic) is Swe 1 (2) Swe 2 (2) Swe 2 (2) Team lead (3) Team lead (3) Org lead (3) & repeat probably the rest of your career This is solving for fastest growth, keeping industry skills, without making you look excessively job hoppy. Promotions are a myth that shouldn’t be pursued unless you find yourself on a team with a bunch of lemmings, which does happen sometimes. Tc: 530k pre market crash $450k now & on the market 🙃
Could you explain the difference between senior and team lead? If I was interviewing with a company what kinds of questions should I ask to filter for one or the other?
Is it fine to have a couple of 1 year stints because you didn't like the job/team?
I would look at it almost like a wash. Not as bad as a gap year, but you probably didn’t deliver much during that year. I would almost just not consider it (positively or negatively) if it’s a year or less
I would just coast and try to hit 1.5 years
I’m not sure I fully agree but one thing you absolutely should have stated in all caps multiple times: PROMOTIONS ARE A MYTH You’ll get promoted jumping between companies. Otherwise you’ll have to wait your turn because of seniority (you won’t have any) and playing the game (you won’t know the players).
Promotions are granted after you’ve already been operating at that level for 6+ months. And you’ve probably been close for 6+ months before then. You can just diagonal hop once you’re close, saving a year of waiting
I was passed over for promotion a while back. Is it actually common to not promote from within?
2 years is too short.
What a bunch of nonsense. Tc: 435k at 6 years
Nah, 2 year stints are short and if you have a ton that looks very job hoppy. At higher levels where you have to take more on ramp up can take up to a year to fit everything in your head meaningfully. So then that’s a single year afterward of reasonable to hopefully high output.
Definitely takes a year+ at high levels to really become familiar with a complicated domain. A 2-year jump would only leave you with a year to demonstrate good impact.
I’ve seen many candidates wave this by with something as simple as “yes I’ve been exposed to a lot of different companies but at this point in my life I really just want <something this company> and <something else this company offers>.” And most people just accept it