PDQ Career Paths offer promotions along two complementary and valued paths. The first, Expertise and Influence, focuses on expertise and the experience gained as a software engineer. The second, GSD and Ownership, is centered around the efficiency and ability to deliver value to the customer often.
They complement each other well because they are distinctly different ways to excel as an engineer, but they both lift the other. As we improve in one path, it will gradually and naturally improve our abilities in the other. It's a natural progression to improve in both as gradual offsets which become "eventually consistent".
The titles associated with the overall career paths expect a minimum "sub-Path Level" in each path (explained below).
| Title | Technical Expertise & Influence | GSD & Ownership |
|---|---|---|
| 1 - Software Engineer I | 1 - Adopts | 1 - Updates |
| 2 - Software Engineer II/III | 2 - Specializes Approaching | 2 - Enhances Approaching |
| 3 - Senior Software Engineer I | 4 - Mentors Approaching | 4 - Designs Approaching |
| 4 - Senior Software Engineer II | 5 - Mentors Exceeding | 5 - Designs Exceeding |
| 5 - Staff Software Engineer I | 7 - Evangelizes Exceeding | 6 - Owns Approaching |
| 6 - Staff Software Engineer II | 7 - Evangelizes Exceeding | 7 - Owns Exceeding |
| 7 - Principal Architect I | 8 - Masters Approaching | 9 - Evolves Exceeding |
| 8 - Principal Architect II | 9 - Masters Exceeding | 10 - Leads Approaching |
| 9 - Principal Architect III | 10 - Creates Approaching | 11 - Leads Exceeding |
There is a distinct "sub-Path Level" at each "Path Level" for, Approaching (meeting 60% of the expectations in the "Path Level") and Exceeding (meeting 100% of the expectations in the "Path Level"). The current expecation is that in order to move from one "Path Level" to the next, that we meet 100% (Exceeding) of the "Path Level" before it. We've tried to generalize the "Path Level" expectations so that they focus on generalized best practices, but we realize that as we advance to some of the higher technical leadership roles, such as Staff to Principal, there is a tendency to start to specialize. Our hope is that the expectations continue to be generalized enough and applicable at those elevated leadership roles.
Advancement at each "sub-Path Level" is considered a promotion. Not all promotions will come with a title advancement, but they will come with a compensation increase. Currently, this advancement path is only open to one "sub-Path Level" advancement every six (6) months. The reasoning for this is two-fold:
- We expect the advancements to be challenging, and defined well enough that it will be clear that these advancements require dedication to personal development.
- Many of these traits and best practices won't necessarily become habits over a short period of time. We ask that these improvements in our development behavior are exhibited over a six (6) month track record and come with several examples of each behavior during that time. They shouldn't be easily obtained by producing single one-off examples of each since we are looking for a tangible shift in the way we operate as engineers.
Much of this pattern is taken after the Khan Academy Engineering Career Development document. We've changed the overall structure a bit, and revamped the paths and levels to match our own scale of expectations that align with our desired culture and what we value here at PDQ.
The philosophy is similar, in that our overall goal is that engineers should no longer have to ask for a raise. It should be clear to each person what the next step to take is in their own personal development to obtain their desired promotion and pay bump.
Please read through and get familiar with the PDQ Career Paths.