Your Company Doesn’t Determine Your Level, You Do

For the longest time I thought of leveling in tech as a reward for good behavior. That leveling up would be something that would take care of itself as long as I put in good work.

Obviously, I was very naive about this. Companies have a strong interest in keeping your level as low as possible for as long as possible. Most managers did not set me up to be leveled up quickly - it was on me to push on leveling harder to make sure it reflected my experience. And I did not do that.

For a long time in my career I thought I was sacrificing level to gain access to more prestigious companies and more lucrative fields of CS. However, this backfired. I had to restart my promo progression twice for the same level, delaying my career trajectory by a ton.

Note to self: don’t look at your company to tell you what level you are, because (before or after joining) they have a vested interest in downleveling you. Use objective data to compare your years of experience with your peers and demand to be leveled commensurate with your breadth and depth of experience. Your company does not determine what level you are. You do. And if your company fails to recognize this for long enough, leave.