Staff-plus career ladders

There are so many different career ladders shared in public these days that there’s no reason not to read a half-dozen different ones before attempting to design your own.

Some that are particularly worth reading through:

• Rent the Runway
• Kickstarter
• Patreon

You can find even more collected at progression.fyi. Charity Majors has also written a helpful guide of things to know about engineering levels.

I think it’s important to recognize that career ladders only apply effectively against populations of individuals. They rarely, if ever, apply cleanly against any individual. This effect becomes particularly pronounced in Staff-plus roles, which are often only populated by a couple of folks. Ladders are essential but don’t get caught believing they’re a map of how things actually work rather than a mythos of how things are intended to work.

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Book

If you've enjoyed reading the stories and guides on staffeng.com, you might also enjoy Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track, which features many of these guides and stories.