От L5 до L9 в Google

Преамбула: Не мое. Попал на интересный комментарий на блайнде, естественно анонимный и ссылки по большому счету нет.

Context: I grew to L9 internally within Google.

Impact sounds cool, but in reality it's more about responsibility and scope vs just impact.

Eg. You could be an amazing L6 improving massive parts of an important Google product, but that does not mean you are ready to take on the responsibility of being a director.

So what does it mean to be able to handle each of these levels? There are obviously many flavours of it but here is a very coarse summary:

L5: You own and guide problems within the team. There is some cross team impact. Usually you are the go to person within the team both internally and externally. For larger teams it could be an area within a team vs the entire scope of the team. Usually a TL at this point but there are some folks who might take over management.

L6 engineering manager: it's now your job to run a good team. That means getting the right TLs, hiring the right junior engineers and unblocking them whenever it's appropriate. You are effectively a strong frontline manager at this point. It's also your job to make the best use of your team by defining its scope.

L7 engineering manager: You are now managing the L6 EMs. You own a larger domain with multiple teams. In some cases they are related in some cases they are broadly under the same area. Here your job is basically to hire the right managers, make sure they select the right TLs and ensure the right people and behaviour is rewarded or punished. You start setting a culture. It sounds nebulous but it's very tangible in terms of who gets promoted, what work is appreciated in perf etc. Keep in mind you won't get to L7 by being a strong L6. You get to L7 by showing capabilities to handle multiple L6s. Maybe an example: You are a group or 5 L6 EMs. Everyone wants headcount. Usually the person who can get these peers to agree on a framework and get to come to a decision slowly gets promoted to L7. At this stage opportunity matters in addition to your skill.

L8 director: Welcome to the big leagues. At this stage making opportunities is also a part of your skill. So is skill skill, if it makes sense. At this point you basically have to have a VP+ who thinks the following conditions are true:

1) The area you are leading is important enough to need a director

2) You will be able to own the entire problem and will very rarely need the VP to step in

3) You will be able to run the org in terms of culture and values

4) You are capable of hiring the right managers managing managers

5) You have the emotional maturity to understand how the real world works and make shit ship despite of it

There is no scope to whine at this level. You own the problem - you have wide discretion and the expectation that you will solve people issues, maintain Google culture and figure out and build what needs to be built for Google to succeed. The Goals are very abstract - you define success and deliver it while keeping VPs somewhat regularly updated. You also get to do the fun task of convincing your L9s or VPs to give you the resources you need. They won't, and you will have to deliver anyway.

L9 EM: You usually do a combination of the above AND identify and mentor other L8s who can do this. In addition you spar for resources even more than an L8 because they might depend on you to get those if they fail. Which means the easy stuff never comes to you anyway.

Again L8+ tends to be bespoke but usually you will negotiate at SVP level a couple of times a year. Then spend the rest of the year delivering on the things you tried to get the resources for. If it's a particularly important product or area then you get to meet Sundar. That's always awesome.

Misc points about progressing through this:

1) People complain that growth needs opportunity. Yes it does, but you control that. If you don't think you are in the right place MOVE. Google makes it super easy and it's on you if you don't do it.

2) Its almost impossible to use brute force to grow through the ranks. You need to be able to rally people around your vision or ideas. Usually peers. So have substance.

3) Dont try to become a L7 by being a kick-ass L6. There is a difference, identify it and work on developing those skills and maturity.

4) Get honest feedback from smart people frequently. Be shameless about it. Then objectively evaluate it and like any other project pick the high impact and ROI things to work on.

5) Enjoy the journey. As cliche as it may sound, going from making $750k as a senior L7 to $2M a year as an L9 does not really change your money based happiness as much as you might think. It's not about some philosophy, it's because that's the only way to keep at it and not burn out.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any specific questions anyone has on this. Right after I am done convincing my SVP to give me that damn headcount. 😂