The Paths To Staff+ Level

In most companies, the promotion to L5 (Senior Engineer) is mandatory. Most of us get there in 3 to 6 years. After that, it’s no clear path to promote further. It’s a very hard promotion for most of us. Around 50%-60% of engineers in a company is L5 or below.

How to get to L6 (Staff Engineer)? I remember a small sample survey on Reddit. The result showed about 60% get to L6 through internal promotion, the other through external interview. I think each one should make a choice on the individual situation.

Whichever way you choose, there are identical requirements to qualify – technical capacity, leadership, influence skills, communication, etc. The paths differs how do you prove your qualification to the authorities. Roughly speaking, the internal promotion path is more forgiving on one shortcomings and allow one to compensate on his or her strongest aspect. Internal promotion also allow accidental success to dwarf the lack in merits and skills. The interview path requires the full pack and your best shining quality are harder to be discovered in hours of interaction. Again, no path is always easier and differs significantly for individuals.

Lastly, it’s worth it all. Not only the salary jump from L5 to L6 is huge – around 50% on a already fat package – it’s also a strong justification of your overall ability and skill.