SlideShare a Scribd company logo

Ultimate Guide on Software Engineer Career Progression

V
Valentine201794

The document outlines the importance of establishing a software engineer career progression framework for tech companies to enhance employee motivation, development, and retention. It discusses various career ladder structures based on company size, provides tools for managers to effectively plan career progression, and highlights benefits for both employees and organizations. Additionally, it includes templates and examples from successful tech companies to assist in building a tailored career path framework.

Leadership & Management
Related topics:
Insights on Software Development • Career Planning • Software Engineering
1 of 67
Download to read offline
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
1 Ultimate Guide to Software Engineer Career Progression + BONUS: FREE TEMPLATES
2 If you are looking for ways to become a better manager and build a high-performing team of motivated developers, you definitely need to know about software engineer career pro- gression and how to build an engineering career ladder. Successful tech companies like Etsy, Dropbox, Spotify, Buffer, SongKick Technology, and many others, have already devel- oped and implemented their own career path framework, in order to retain top engineers and make better decisions. Vectorly will help you explore the experience of these com- panies and help managers to build their own software engi- neer career progression framework, adapted to the company’s needs.
3 Contents > What is a software engineer career progression? > Must-have toolkit for a manager > 5 stages of career planning for a tech team > How to build a software engineer career ladder (Exam- ple) > BONUS! The ultimate list of career path templates for 50+ tech roles
4 What is a software engineer career progression?
5 Before we start talking about how to build a successful soft- ware engineer career ladder in your company, make decisions about promotions and help engineers skip level and raise grade, you need to define the terms and find out — what is a career ladder, or career progression? An engineering career ladder is not just a list of developer positions and responsibilities. This is a systematized career growth roadmap, which inсludes skills, achievements, expec- tations and a vision of a career future. To simplify, the career ladder is a way to chart individual career progress.
6 Roles and titles Roles and titles are terms that define the place of a software engineer in a company. However, there are differences: Job role is the area of responsibility of an employee, which reflects what kind of work they perform in the company. The area of responsibility defines the scope of duties: what the employee does at work every day, what kind of tasks they have. Job roles examples: Developer, Designer, Product Manager. Job title is the name of the position that a person occupies in a company. This usually consists of a job level (Junior, Mid- dle, Senior) and a specialization (QA Manual Engineer, Python Developer, Go Developer). If the job role involves managing people, this is also usually reflected in the job title (Team Lead, Technical Officer, Project Manager), etc.
7 That’s what Chuck Groom says about the importance of defin- ing titles and roles: New companies or teams often don’t have well-defined titles or roles. In fact, this may be a perverse source of pride; you may hear things like “we’re a flat organization” and “titles don’t mat- ter.” While people may have very different salaries, there’s a general sense that it’s a meritocracy. Chuck Groom Consulting CTO/VPE, serial entrepreneur, advisor, engineering leader
8 Free skill matrix templates and career path templates for 50+ tech roles by Vectorly. Get templates
9 Levels (or grades) Job levels (or job grades) denote the level of responsibility in the company, within the job role. The higher the job level, the more expertise, independence and initiative the company ex- pects from an engineer. Companies use roles to build grades, designate OKRs for reaching the next level, and motivate an employee to reach new heights. A simple software engineer levels system looks like: engineer level 1, 2, 3, 4 or Junior Developer, Middle Devel- oper, Senior Developer, Tech Lead, but as the company grows, it can become larger or even branch out. Such systems allow a developer to move along their career path and develop within the company. This means that, if a company uses this method, developers have professional growth opportunities and have more motivation to stay with the company. Next, we will move on to examples of the different types of software engineer career ladder examples and explore what software engineer career progression frameworks exist, de- pending on the size of the company.
10 Software engineer career ladder examples As we said earlier, the software engineer career ladder can be more or less complex, depending on the structure and needs of the company. We will give examples of different types of software engineer career frameworks. When building your own career framework, it is important not just to copy existing models, but to focus on the goals and values of your company, as well as discussing its structure with the team at the formation stage.
11 Small companies (<20) Often, small companies and startups don’t feel the need to build a career ladder framework and are limited to job titles. Career development implementations happen as the compa- ny grows, are often unplanned, and the KPIs that have to be based on the skills and traits of engineers are unclear. In this case, developers do not have professional development goals and may lose motivation over time. So, the best talent will go to other companies, where they will be offered career growth opportunities. The basic software engineer career path looks like a change of levels — engineers skip from one level to another within the framework of the role approved at the start: Junior Developer, Middle Developer, Senior Developer, Tech Lead.
12 Adapt Vectorly’s engineer career ladder template for your tech team for free. Get template
13 Medium companies (<100) As the company grows, the career progression framework should become more complex — intermediate positions (lev- els) on the career path can be introduced. But the most important point is to build a career progression for those engineers who want to develop professionally, but don’t have the desire to grow into managers and hone their people skills. Here, a branched career path becomes relevant. It often has two tracks — engineering career path, technical or management, where a developer can become a manager and develop in leadership, or become an IC (individual contributor) and develop as an expert. This division of the career path is called the dual-ladder ap- proach. Some successful companies have developed this approach in building software engineer progression for their teams. Here are some examples worth exploring.
14 Adapt Vectorly’s engineer career ladder template for your tech team for free. Get template Maker Manager Level 1 -Lead/Manager 1 Level 2 -Lead/Manager 2 Level 3 -Senior Manager/ Associate Director/ Head of X Level 4 -Director Buffer has developed their own career progression framework that allows employees to develop professionally and move along the career ladder without becoming a manager. This framework has two equal growth opportunities - the individual contributor track and the managerial track.
15 One of the variations of a dual-ladder approach was developed at Songkick Technology. You can adapt Songkick’s developer career path template for your own company. Get template Individual Contributor Architect Principal Architect People Management Software Developer 1 Software Developer 2 Senior Software Developer 1 Senior Software Developer 2 / Technical Lead Technical Lead / Engineering Manager Engineering Manager Developer
16 Bigger Companies (>100) Large companies, with complex structures, develop their own, more complex career progression frameworks. There may be several levels within a career path, depending on the needs of the company. Levels.fyi collected data from the world’s leading tech com- panies about what levels are present in their frameworks and what is the process of moving from level to level. The com- panies in the scheme below show several typical cases in the organization of software engineer levels.
17 Senior Technical Staff Member Distinguished Engineer Distinguished Engineer Google Fellow Distinguished Engineer Principal Engineer Senior Staff SWE Staff SWE Senior SWE SWE III SWE II Senior SDE SDE II SDE I Principal SDE Senior Principal SDE IBM Fellow Senior Engineer Advisory Engineer Staff Engineer Associate Engineer Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Staff Engineer Senior Staff Engineer Principal Engineer Senior Principal Engineer Fellow Senior Fellow L 3 L 4 L 5 L 6 L 7
18 You can explore the experience of top tech companies and get more details on how their frameworks were developed and implemented: ↘ Etsy ↘ Dropbox ↘ CircleCI ↘ Spotify
19 With Vectorly, you can build a career progression frame- work using ready-made career path templates for 50+ tech roles. Get templates
20 Benefits of building career paths for a tech team Career ladders help to achieve the best results in self-develop- ing both employees and companies. Let’s take a closer look at what benefits the participants receive from the process.
21 For developers > Gain a broader skill base A well-built career path includes a professional devel- opment plan, within which an employee receives an assessment of the current level of their skills and tasks for developing the focus skills necessary for promotion.
22 If your people aren’t growing, they’re leaving”. This is a favourite expression of mine. Everyone at Charlie has probably heard me say that over a hundred times. When we started Charlie, we built the business to put a high priority on the progres- sion of each member of the team. Ben Gateley CEO & Co-Founder at CharlieHR Ben Gateley tells about CharleHR’s experience of implement- ing a career progression framework:
23 > Unlock earning potential Together with a manager, employees can define profes- sional development goals and career goals, including their salary expectations. Then they build a career devel- opment plan jointly, that will help achieve these goals in the shortest possible time. > Avoid stagnation A well-defined development plan allows engineers to constantly develop and achieve their goals in the fastest way, while increasing job satisfaction and feeling their contribution to common business goals.
24 Along with helping managers set expectations and hold teams accountable for their work, this re- source [Dropbox’s Engineering Career Framework] empowers engineers to achieve greater impact in their role and grow in their careers. Anirudh Todi, Director Of Engineering at Snap, ex-Director Of Engineering at Dropbox Anirudh Todi shares Dropbox’s experience on implementing a career path framework:
25 > Clear promotion requirements It means employees understand what is required to get promoted and get a pay raise. If the career progression framework is organized correctly, then grade raises take place every six months, which allows software engineer- ing managers to plan the career path of developers. > Opportunity to choose and plan the career path With a career progression framework, software engi- neers are free to choose in what direction they develop professionally - take the managerial track and improve soft skills, or build expertise by moving along the tech- nical track.
26 I am one of those annoying managers who asks people where they’d like to be in five years. I call it “annoying” because it’s a lot to think about. But I still ask it, not because I’m not looking for a per- fect answer, but because it gives them an opportu- nity to consider their future and, usually, they tell me something I should know. Sarah Drasner Director of Engineering, Core Developer Web at Google Sarah Drasner explains why career planning talks with em- ployees are important:
27 For managers > Building a high-performing team Career progression allows a manager or a team lead to create and maintain a growth mindset and continu- ous learning in the company. So, the team is constantly growing, developing skills and performs better, in gener- al. > Increase motivation Long-term goals motivate the team and help to avoid stagnation. Motivation directly influences performance, while a high-performing team is one of the business success factors.
28 > Improve retention Career growth and professional development are the best ways to motivate employees, save top talent and keep the best engineers. For most developers, one of the key factors in choosing a job (or when making the decision to get an offer from another company) is the opportunity for career development and getting new professional perspectives. > Ability to make better decisions Having clear guidelines, a manager can make transpar- ent and reasoned decisions about pay rise, grade raise, hiring, etc. And also to make these decisions transparent, both for the team and for senior management and HR.
29 Promotions should be based on recognition of skill development and consistent demonstration of specific behaviors that lead to greater and more positive impact on the business. Bradford Fults Senior Engineering Leader at SailPoint & Permanent Austinite Bradford Fults speaks of the importance of the professional development of engineers:
30 For HR A hiring bar for each level makes it fairly easy for HR to decide in favor of one or another candidate. It is better to compare specialists with each other, using the system - this is how the company eliminates the human factor. > Fairness and transparency in decision-making process One of the tasks of a recruiter is to find objective crite- ria for understanding whether a developer is ready for promotion or not. Clear steps towards achieving career goals within the company make employees understand that their growth or lack thereof is a fair decision.
31 To that end, having a fair, equitable, and clear framework for leveling and career progression is one of our most important goals. Engineering leaders talk about levels and promotion process- es a lot, but they focus more on the what and not the why. At Carta, we want everyone to understand how the company thinks about fairness and com- pensation, why our leveling processes exist, and what they’re trying to achieve. Jerry Talton, CTO at Carta Jerry Talton tells about Carta’s experience:
32 > Optimize the hiring process Understanding the professional level of a potential em- ployee allows you to more confidently determine the cost of hiring, identify the skillset and, in general, clarify whether the developer will fit into the team and can contribute to the company’s goals. > Transparent decisions on pay raise If career paths are clearly defined and pay grades are tied to specific levels, then this greatly reduces the diffi- culty in negotiating decisions on salary increases.
33 Our Software Engineering Career Ladder is a cru- cial element of Square’s toolkit for supporting engineers’ growth. It helps us ensure that we eval- uate and reward engineers consistently and fairly, regardless of their team, discipline, or background. Michael White Former Head of Engineering at Square, co-founder at Stealth Startup Michael White speaks of how a software engineering career ladder helps to support engineers at Square:
34 > Improve a company’s brand image When a company cares about the professional develop- ment and well-being of its employees and is ready to invest in their education, this always increases its cred- ibility among candidates, making the company a place everyone wants to work. Read a successful case study of motivating employees and retaining the best technical talent with professional development What to Do if Your Devel- oper Comes to Work With an Offer From Another Company? Now you have an understanding of what a career progression is and why it’s important both for an employee and the com- pany. It’s time to find out how to organize a career progression planning for a team and build a career ladder.
35 Must-have toolkit for a manager Before we move to the part on how to professionally plan a career progression for your team, you need to get a basic tool- kit. This is a list of tools (with useful links and templates) that will help manage the career growth of engineers and effec- tively form a career progression framework for them.
36 Tool #1: Skill matrix Skill matrices include a set of skills, required for a certain role. These skills are mapped to levels on a career path, so a manager can understand how to identify the grade of each employee and what skills are required to help engineers skip level. Companies can create their own skill matrices or simply use skill matrix template and adapt them to the needs of their team. Useful link: Free skill matrix templates for 50+ tech roles.
37 Tool #2: Career path template A career path is a roadmap that contains grades and skills and helps developers understand what needs to be done to reach a new career level: both in the manager line and in the expert line. Typically, grades represent the path from junior to senior. But as a company grows, the engineer career path can become more complex. Useful link: Free career path templates for 50+ tech roles.
38 Tool #3: Review Reviews help assess the current skills of a team and identify the requirements for grades. With the help of a review, you can find weaknesses (skill gaps) and points of growth. It is important to hold reviews regularly, to make sure the skills of teammates meet the requirements of a certain grade, as well as checking their professional development progress. To get more information on how to organize an effective skills review of a tech team - read our most detailed guide ever: Software Engineer Performance Review Example. Useful link: Vectorly’s 360-degree reviews.
39 Tool #4: 1-on-1 meetings Personal meetings help to discuss career goals, set OKRs, and build development plans with employees. Also during these meetings, a manager can monitor the employee’s progress and make decisions on grade raise and pay raise. Vectorly has one-on-one meeting templates that help save time on prep and structure the dialogue with a ready-made agenda to make it super effective. Useful link: 1-on-1 meeting templates
40 Tool #5: PDP PDP is a professional development plan that helps a manager approach the engineer career ladder organization systemati- cally and meet both engineer’s career goals and the goals of a company. Good PDP should include a combination of educational activ- ities and working tasks on developing focus skills in order to successfully implement continuous learning in the workflow of a tech team and meet career goals faster. To build an effective PDP for your tech team that will really work - read our guide: 4 Steps to Integrate Professional Devel- opment Plan Into Your Workflow. Useful link: Vectorly’s growth plan
41 5 stages of career planning for a tech team
42 If you’re wondering how to write a career progression plan and what the stages of career progression planning are, this part will definitely give you the answers. A good manager should make career progression planning a continuous process. And that’s why: > First of all, a manager should regularly hold reviews to check how the skills of a team meet the requirements of their current grades (and desired levels) and monitor the progress of their professional development. > Secondly, the career progression framework should be updated at least once a year, so the requirements and skills included in it are relevant to the market. Vectorly has come up with a 5-stage career progression plan- ning process. This cycle also includes a meeting schedule, with an agenda and tools necessary at each stage.
43 Build a career progression framework Check progress & make adjustments to PDP Make decisions on level raise Check progress & make adjustments to PDP Update a career progression framework Q1 202 2 Q2 2022 Q3 2022 Q4 202 2 Q1 2023 5-Stage Career Planning Cycle 1 2 3 4 5
44 At this stage, a manager creates a career ladder and imple- ments it in the company. This is probably the most time-con- suming and difficult stage of the career planning process. Yet Vectorly has prepared a step-by-step guide on how to build a software engineer career progression framework, which you can find in the next part of this guide. As a result of this stage, teammates will get a clear under- standing of their career path and what skills they should de- velop, in order to get a grade raise. In short, at this stage, a manager needs to: > Create a list of skills > Set grades > Map skills to grades > Hold 1-on-1 meetings to build a PDP plan Build a career progression framework 1
45 Toolkit: > Skill matrix templates > Career path template > 360-degree review > Meeting templates > Growth plan For more detailed info, check out the next part of this guide - How to build a software engineer career ladder (Example).
46 After the career progression framework has been implemented and a PDP plan has been built, a repeated skill review needs to be held, in order to check the progress of an employee on developing the focus skills from a professional development plan. Also, during this 1-on-1 meeting, a manager should make updates to the current PDP. So, at this stage, a manager needs to: > Hold a review to assess the current level of skills > Make adjustments to a PDP Toolkit: > 360-degree review > 1-on-1 templates > Growth plan This meeting should be held regularly, as you can see in the picture - Q1 and Q4. Check progress & make adjustments to PDP 2
47 Six months after building a career progression framework, it’s time to make decisions on grade raises. A manager should hold a review, in order to see how well employees have suc- ceeded in developing the required skills for their desired posi- tion. On the basis of this review analysis, the manager and HR will make decisions about who will get promoted and get a pay raise. By doing this, the decisions are transparent to all the parties involved - engineers, team leads, and HR. To sum up, at this stage, a manager needs to: > Hold a review to assess the current level of skills > Hold 1:1 to discuss level and pay raise Toolkit > 360-degree review > 1-on-1 templates Decisions on grade raise should be made regularly - twice a year (Q1 and Q3 on the picture). Make decisions on level raise 3
48 This stage repeats #2, as this is the time when a manager checks how the current PDP is being implemented by an em- ployee and makes necessary changes to it. A manager needs to: > Hold a review to assess the current level of skills > Make adjustments to PDP Toolkit: > 360-degree review > 1-on-1 templates > Growth plan This meeting should be held regularly, as you can see in the picture - Q1 and Q4. Check progress & make adjustments to PDP 4
49 After a career ladder has been built and successfully imple- mented into the work of a company, a manager’s goal is to make adjustments to the framework. Skill matrices and career paths of engineers should be updated once a year, in order to make sure that the team’s professional development goals are relevant to the current business goals and meet the require- ments of the industry. So once a year, a manager needs to: > Update the list of skills > Update grades > Map the updated skills to grades > Hold 1:1s on professional development & discuss level raises Toolkit: > Skill matrix templates > Career path template > 360-degree review > Meeting templates > Growth plan Update a career progression framework 5
50 To sum up, the key factor of successful career planning is reg- ularity. The process of implementation of the engineer career progression framework contains a set of regular meetings, which are: > Once a year: create/update a career progression frame- work > Once every six months: make decisions on pay and grade raise, and create new PDP > Once every three months: hold a review to assess the skills and make adjustments to the current PDP This 5-stage career planning cycle will help to make the professional development of every member of a tech team systematic, provide engineers with career development op- portunities within the company, as well as make decisions on promotions and pay raise transparent to all parties involved.
51 Still have questions on how to create a career pro- gression and organize career planning for your team? Don’t worry - Vectorly expert will help you to figure it out on a free 25-min call. Book demo
52 How to build a software engineer career ladder (Example)
53 After reading the previous parts of this guide, you know how the career planning cycle works and have the set of tools you will need to create a career ladder framework for your tech team. Let’s move on to the steps of its creation. This picture below shows the main steps on how to build an engineer career ladder adapted to the current skill level of the team and with transparent requirements for each grade and professional development plans to reach the desired position.
54 Now, let’s dive into details and consider each step mentioned above. Build a career progression framework Step 1 Create a list of skills Step 2 Set grades Step 3 Map skills to grades Step 4 1:1 to build PDP 3.1 Assign people to grades 3.2 Hold skills review 3.3 Get team analytics 3.4 Set requirements for job grades 4.1 Discuss and set career goals 4.2 Discuss and set OKRs
55 Step 1: Create a list of skills At this stage, a list of skills is formed that are necessary for a particular role. The manager can create their own list, or use ready-made skill matrix templates and customize them to the needs of their team.
56 This is how an engineer skill set looks like in Vectorly: Use free skill matrix templates for 50+ tech roles on your email. Get templates
57 Step 2: Set grades (levels) Next, a career path is formed. It contains job levels (or job grades) and their description - what skills are required to take a certain position or skip to the next level. Depending on the size of the company, the career path may look different. You can build your own career path, using a ready-made tem- plate and customize it to the needs of your company.
58 Use Vectorly’s engineer career ladder template for your tech team for free. Get templates
59 Step 3: Mapping skills to grades In order to set relevant requirements for job levels in your team, you need to assign employees to their current grades and run a skills review. After doing this, you’ll get an under- standing of the real level of skills of your teammates of differ- ent grades, and based on these analytics, set the requirements for job levels on a career path. 3.1. Assign people to grades When you have created a career path, distribute employees according to their current grades - Junior, Middle, Senior, Tech Lead (or other levels you have adopted in your company).
60 3.2. Hold a skill review Run a review to assess the skills and get the real picture of the current state of a team. Read: Software Engineer Performance Review Example Hold easy & no fuss 360-degree reviews with Vectorly. Run review
61 3.3. Get team analytics Based on the results of the skills review, get insights on the current state of the team’s skills.
62 3.4. Set requirements for job grades After you have performed a skills review and found the skill gaps, set requirements for every level on a career path. This will help you understand what skills engineers need to devel- op, in order to get a grade raise.
63 Step 4: 1:1 to build PDP Once you have determined the current level of skills of the team members and set the requirements for grades, it’s time to discuss their professional development plans. 4.1. Discuss and set career goals To do this, set up a 1-on-1 meeting, where you discuss what career goals the developer has in mind, as well as their plans regarding their future in the company and salary expectations. 4.2. Discuss and set OKRs. During these 1-on-1 meetings, a manager should also inform an employee about the business goals the company has and set OKRs for them that will help meet these goals. As a result of this discussion, an individual professional de- velopment plan is created, which should include learning and working tasks for developing focus skills. Read: 4 Steps to Integrate Professional Development Plan Into Your Workflow.
64 To save time on prep, use Vectorly’s one-on-one meeting tem- plates, with a ready-made agenda to have a constructive and helpful dialogue with an engineer. Get templates
65 Hold a review and build a carer progression framework for your team on a 25-min all with Vectorly. Book demo
66 BONUS! The Ultimate List of Career Path Templates For 50+ Tech Roles In this bonus part, Vectorly has gathered the fullest list of tech roles and career paths examples. Click on the role and get levels descriptions, what skills you need on each level, as well as career goals examples.
67 Backend Development Career Paths Front-end Development Career Paths Designer Career Paths Career Path Templates For Management Roles Data Science Career Paths Career Paths For Software Testing (QA) Game Development Career Paths Run a review with Vectorly to assess the skills of your tech team. Book demo

More Related Content

PDF
Ultimate Guide on How to Run Performance Review
Valentine201794
 
PDF
How to Manage Growth of Tech Team
Valentine201794
 
PPTX
Building a successful software company
Ömer Demir
 
PDF
Applied Deep Learning for Text Classification - Examples from the HR Industry
Alexander Chukovski
 
PDF
Software Developer vs. Software Engineer: Understanding the Difference
Paidant
 
PDF
Agile for developers
Jerome Eteve
 
PDF
Lead Developer Career Guide - MEAP V01 Shelley Benhoff
morseud880
 
PDF
Resume Platform. In todays competitive job market,
Chelsea Cote
 
Ultimate Guide on How to Run Performance Review
Valentine201794
 
How to Manage Growth of Tech Team
Valentine201794
 
Building a successful software company
Ömer Demir
 
Applied Deep Learning for Text Classification - Examples from the HR Industry
Alexander Chukovski
 
Software Developer vs. Software Engineer: Understanding the Difference
Paidant
 
Agile for developers
Jerome Eteve
 
Lead Developer Career Guide - MEAP V01 Shelley Benhoff
morseud880
 
Resume Platform. In todays competitive job market,
Chelsea Cote
 

Similar to Ultimate Guide on Software Engineer Career Progression (20)

PPTX
SoftServe - The Difference Is You! Join Professionals!
Mykhailo Burychka
 
PDF
Entry Level Software Developer Jobs in USA
Optnation
 
PDF
Tackling Employee Experience Today As We Embrace The Future Workplace
Richard Harbridge
 
PDF
Engineering Career Paths.pdf
VladimirRadzivil
 
PDF
iSQI Certification Days DASA – DevOps & ISTQB Frank Frambach
Ievgenii Katsan
 
PDF
HeyCoach Super 30 brochure.pdf
HeyCoach
 
PDF
DevSecOpsMaturityModel.pdf
cdsk335
 
PPT
Eversun Careers
Marie Claire Ponsaran
 
PDF
Top Companies to Outsource Software Migration and Modernization Work
Mindfire LLC
 
PDF
How To Hire Dedicated Developers for Startups Step-by-Step Guide (2024).pdf
Vrinsoft Technology
 
DOCX
Curriculum_Vitae - SF
Sam Ferguson
 
PDF
Most in demand skills for software development staff augmentation
Katy Slemon
 
PPTX
Microsoft Copilot Studio - Implementation Guide (1.5).pptx
angeldelolmorodrigue
 
PPTX
Soft Serve Presentation
Iurii Turok
 
PDF
SALESFROCESALESFROCSESALESFROCESALESFORCESAL
20egjcs041
 
PDF
Andrew Lukianenko: Role of Project Manager in tech startups (UA)
Lviv Startup Club
 
PDF
DevOps adoption challenges and solutions to overcome them
philipthomas428223
 
PPTX
How to boost developers onboarding ?
CdricTeyton
 
PDF
Ohos Seed Funding Pitch Deck
Dave Needham
 
DOCX
Lownes_Unit9
Warren Lownes
 
SoftServe - The Difference Is You! Join Professionals!
Mykhailo Burychka
 
Entry Level Software Developer Jobs in USA
Optnation
 
Tackling Employee Experience Today As We Embrace The Future Workplace
Richard Harbridge
 
Engineering Career Paths.pdf
VladimirRadzivil
 
iSQI Certification Days DASA – DevOps & ISTQB Frank Frambach
Ievgenii Katsan
 
HeyCoach Super 30 brochure.pdf
HeyCoach
 
DevSecOpsMaturityModel.pdf
cdsk335
 
Eversun Careers
Marie Claire Ponsaran
 
Top Companies to Outsource Software Migration and Modernization Work
Mindfire LLC
 
How To Hire Dedicated Developers for Startups Step-by-Step Guide (2024).pdf
Vrinsoft Technology
 
Curriculum_Vitae - SF
Sam Ferguson
 
Most in demand skills for software development staff augmentation
Katy Slemon
 
Microsoft Copilot Studio - Implementation Guide (1.5).pptx
angeldelolmorodrigue
 
Soft Serve Presentation
Iurii Turok
 
SALESFROCESALESFROCSESALESFROCESALESFORCESAL
20egjcs041
 
Andrew Lukianenko: Role of Project Manager in tech startups (UA)
Lviv Startup Club
 
DevOps adoption challenges and solutions to overcome them
philipthomas428223
 
How to boost developers onboarding ?
CdricTeyton
 
Ohos Seed Funding Pitch Deck
Dave Needham
 
Lownes_Unit9
Warren Lownes
 
Ad

Recently uploaded (20)

PDF
250816-Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Strategy-CQS.pdf
Obaid Ali / Roohi B. Obaid
 
PDF
The Untold Story of Swami Vijay Kumar Durai: Building PRS International
SanskarTiwari20
 
PPTX
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN LEADERSHIP.pptx
sagingparat
 
PPTX
Management and Leadership across diverse culture
ssuserba0a06
 
PPTX
4 5 6 7 Intro to Ramayan MANAGEMENT LESSONS and Qualities.pptx
RAZIQABJANI
 
PPTX
International trading agreements in world.pptx
MRSNAMRATAKISHNANIBS
 
PPT
Introduction to Operations And Supply Management
evelynkongyeefoon
 
PPTX
Common Methods of Performance Appraisal.pptx
BibekanandShah3
 
PPTX
Presentation on Housekeeping Issue @RP.pptx
pabitrapanda14
 
PPTX
Why work place wellbeing matters BookReview
UmmeRubab48
 
PPTX
BASIC H2S TRAINING for oil and gas industries
mishraankit9408
 
PDF
Personal-Professional-Development-in-Nursing-1.pdf
ReaRabi
 
PPTX
SM_Behavior Based Safety (BBS)_Unit V.pptx
veeramuthu sundararaju
 
PDF
JOB APPLICATION AND RESUME WRITING IN MANAGEMENT
HARINIS967745
 
PPTX
Basics of Project Management for development of leadership skills in practice
KalyaniSalvi
 
PDF
Joshua Moll on Leadership & Mindset..pdf
Joshua Moll
 
PPTX
Time Management Techniques_All Rules.pptx
RakeshYadav759338
 
PPTX
HRM mmm presentation pragati pandey.pptx
BibekanandShah3
 
PPT
Operations Management Supply-Chain Management
evelynkongyeefoon
 
PDF
The Sustainable Site: Boosting Productivity in Construction – Pipe Dream or P...
PMIUKChapter
 
250816-Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Strategy-CQS.pdf
Obaid Ali / Roohi B. Obaid
 
The Untold Story of Swami Vijay Kumar Durai: Building PRS International
SanskarTiwari20
 
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN LEADERSHIP.pptx
sagingparat
 
Management and Leadership across diverse culture
ssuserba0a06
 
4 5 6 7 Intro to Ramayan MANAGEMENT LESSONS and Qualities.pptx
RAZIQABJANI
 
International trading agreements in world.pptx
MRSNAMRATAKISHNANIBS
 
Introduction to Operations And Supply Management
evelynkongyeefoon
 
Common Methods of Performance Appraisal.pptx
BibekanandShah3
 
Presentation on Housekeeping Issue @RP.pptx
pabitrapanda14
 
Why work place wellbeing matters BookReview
UmmeRubab48
 
BASIC H2S TRAINING for oil and gas industries
mishraankit9408
 
Personal-Professional-Development-in-Nursing-1.pdf
ReaRabi
 
SM_Behavior Based Safety (BBS)_Unit V.pptx
veeramuthu sundararaju
 
JOB APPLICATION AND RESUME WRITING IN MANAGEMENT
HARINIS967745
 
Basics of Project Management for development of leadership skills in practice
KalyaniSalvi
 
Joshua Moll on Leadership & Mindset..pdf
Joshua Moll
 
Time Management Techniques_All Rules.pptx
RakeshYadav759338
 
HRM mmm presentation pragati pandey.pptx
BibekanandShah3
 
Operations Management Supply-Chain Management
evelynkongyeefoon
 
The Sustainable Site: Boosting Productivity in Construction – Pipe Dream or P...
PMIUKChapter
 
Ad

Ultimate Guide on Software Engineer Career Progression

  • 1. 1 Ultimate Guide to Software Engineer Career Progression + BONUS: FREE TEMPLATES
  • 2. 2 If you are looking for ways to become a better manager and build a high-performing team of motivated developers, you definitely need to know about software engineer career pro- gression and how to build an engineering career ladder. Successful tech companies like Etsy, Dropbox, Spotify, Buffer, SongKick Technology, and many others, have already devel- oped and implemented their own career path framework, in order to retain top engineers and make better decisions. Vectorly will help you explore the experience of these com- panies and help managers to build their own software engi- neer career progression framework, adapted to the company’s needs.
  • 3. 3 Contents > What is a software engineer career progression? > Must-have toolkit for a manager > 5 stages of career planning for a tech team > How to build a software engineer career ladder (Exam- ple) > BONUS! The ultimate list of career path templates for 50+ tech roles
  • 5. 5 Before we start talking about how to build a successful soft- ware engineer career ladder in your company, make decisions about promotions and help engineers skip level and raise grade, you need to define the terms and find out — what is a career ladder, or career progression? An engineering career ladder is not just a list of developer positions and responsibilities. This is a systematized career growth roadmap, which inсludes skills, achievements, expec- tations and a vision of a career future. To simplify, the career ladder is a way to chart individual career progress.
  • 6. 6 Roles and titles Roles and titles are terms that define the place of a software engineer in a company. However, there are differences: Job role is the area of responsibility of an employee, which reflects what kind of work they perform in the company. The area of responsibility defines the scope of duties: what the employee does at work every day, what kind of tasks they have. Job roles examples: Developer, Designer, Product Manager. Job title is the name of the position that a person occupies in a company. This usually consists of a job level (Junior, Mid- dle, Senior) and a specialization (QA Manual Engineer, Python Developer, Go Developer). If the job role involves managing people, this is also usually reflected in the job title (Team Lead, Technical Officer, Project Manager), etc.
  • 7. 7 That’s what Chuck Groom says about the importance of defin- ing titles and roles: New companies or teams often don’t have well-defined titles or roles. In fact, this may be a perverse source of pride; you may hear things like “we’re a flat organization” and “titles don’t mat- ter.” While people may have very different salaries, there’s a general sense that it’s a meritocracy. Chuck Groom Consulting CTO/VPE, serial entrepreneur, advisor, engineering leader
  • 8. 8 Free skill matrix templates and career path templates for 50+ tech roles by Vectorly. Get templates
  • 9. 9 Levels (or grades) Job levels (or job grades) denote the level of responsibility in the company, within the job role. The higher the job level, the more expertise, independence and initiative the company ex- pects from an engineer. Companies use roles to build grades, designate OKRs for reaching the next level, and motivate an employee to reach new heights. A simple software engineer levels system looks like: engineer level 1, 2, 3, 4 or Junior Developer, Middle Devel- oper, Senior Developer, Tech Lead, but as the company grows, it can become larger or even branch out. Such systems allow a developer to move along their career path and develop within the company. This means that, if a company uses this method, developers have professional growth opportunities and have more motivation to stay with the company. Next, we will move on to examples of the different types of software engineer career ladder examples and explore what software engineer career progression frameworks exist, de- pending on the size of the company.
  • 10. 10 Software engineer career ladder examples As we said earlier, the software engineer career ladder can be more or less complex, depending on the structure and needs of the company. We will give examples of different types of software engineer career frameworks. When building your own career framework, it is important not just to copy existing models, but to focus on the goals and values of your company, as well as discussing its structure with the team at the formation stage.
  • 11. 11 Small companies (<20) Often, small companies and startups don’t feel the need to build a career ladder framework and are limited to job titles. Career development implementations happen as the compa- ny grows, are often unplanned, and the KPIs that have to be based on the skills and traits of engineers are unclear. In this case, developers do not have professional development goals and may lose motivation over time. So, the best talent will go to other companies, where they will be offered career growth opportunities. The basic software engineer career path looks like a change of levels — engineers skip from one level to another within the framework of the role approved at the start: Junior Developer, Middle Developer, Senior Developer, Tech Lead.
  • 12. 12 Adapt Vectorly’s engineer career ladder template for your tech team for free. Get template
  • 13. 13 Medium companies (<100) As the company grows, the career progression framework should become more complex — intermediate positions (lev- els) on the career path can be introduced. But the most important point is to build a career progression for those engineers who want to develop professionally, but don’t have the desire to grow into managers and hone their people skills. Here, a branched career path becomes relevant. It often has two tracks — engineering career path, technical or management, where a developer can become a manager and develop in leadership, or become an IC (individual contributor) and develop as an expert. This division of the career path is called the dual-ladder ap- proach. Some successful companies have developed this approach in building software engineer progression for their teams. Here are some examples worth exploring.
  • 14. 14 Adapt Vectorly’s engineer career ladder template for your tech team for free. Get template Maker Manager Level 1 -Lead/Manager 1 Level 2 -Lead/Manager 2 Level 3 -Senior Manager/ Associate Director/ Head of X Level 4 -Director Buffer has developed their own career progression framework that allows employees to develop professionally and move along the career ladder without becoming a manager. This framework has two equal growth opportunities - the individual contributor track and the managerial track.
  • 15. 15 One of the variations of a dual-ladder approach was developed at Songkick Technology. You can adapt Songkick’s developer career path template for your own company. Get template Individual Contributor Architect Principal Architect People Management Software Developer 1 Software Developer 2 Senior Software Developer 1 Senior Software Developer 2 / Technical Lead Technical Lead / Engineering Manager Engineering Manager Developer
  • 16. 16 Bigger Companies (>100) Large companies, with complex structures, develop their own, more complex career progression frameworks. There may be several levels within a career path, depending on the needs of the company. Levels.fyi collected data from the world’s leading tech com- panies about what levels are present in their frameworks and what is the process of moving from level to level. The com- panies in the scheme below show several typical cases in the organization of software engineer levels.
  • 17. 17 Senior Technical Staff Member Distinguished Engineer Distinguished Engineer Google Fellow Distinguished Engineer Principal Engineer Senior Staff SWE Staff SWE Senior SWE SWE III SWE II Senior SDE SDE II SDE I Principal SDE Senior Principal SDE IBM Fellow Senior Engineer Advisory Engineer Staff Engineer Associate Engineer Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Staff Engineer Senior Staff Engineer Principal Engineer Senior Principal Engineer Fellow Senior Fellow L 3 L 4 L 5 L 6 L 7
  • 18. 18 You can explore the experience of top tech companies and get more details on how their frameworks were developed and implemented: ↘ Etsy ↘ Dropbox ↘ CircleCI ↘ Spotify
  • 19. 19 With Vectorly, you can build a career progression frame- work using ready-made career path templates for 50+ tech roles. Get templates
  • 20. 20 Benefits of building career paths for a tech team Career ladders help to achieve the best results in self-develop- ing both employees and companies. Let’s take a closer look at what benefits the participants receive from the process.
  • 21. 21 For developers > Gain a broader skill base A well-built career path includes a professional devel- opment plan, within which an employee receives an assessment of the current level of their skills and tasks for developing the focus skills necessary for promotion.
  • 22. 22 If your people aren’t growing, they’re leaving”. This is a favourite expression of mine. Everyone at Charlie has probably heard me say that over a hundred times. When we started Charlie, we built the business to put a high priority on the progres- sion of each member of the team. Ben Gateley CEO & Co-Founder at CharlieHR Ben Gateley tells about CharleHR’s experience of implement- ing a career progression framework:
  • 23. 23 > Unlock earning potential Together with a manager, employees can define profes- sional development goals and career goals, including their salary expectations. Then they build a career devel- opment plan jointly, that will help achieve these goals in the shortest possible time. > Avoid stagnation A well-defined development plan allows engineers to constantly develop and achieve their goals in the fastest way, while increasing job satisfaction and feeling their contribution to common business goals.
  • 24. 24 Along with helping managers set expectations and hold teams accountable for their work, this re- source [Dropbox’s Engineering Career Framework] empowers engineers to achieve greater impact in their role and grow in their careers. Anirudh Todi, Director Of Engineering at Snap, ex-Director Of Engineering at Dropbox Anirudh Todi shares Dropbox’s experience on implementing a career path framework:
  • 25. 25 > Clear promotion requirements It means employees understand what is required to get promoted and get a pay raise. If the career progression framework is organized correctly, then grade raises take place every six months, which allows software engineer- ing managers to plan the career path of developers. > Opportunity to choose and plan the career path With a career progression framework, software engi- neers are free to choose in what direction they develop professionally - take the managerial track and improve soft skills, or build expertise by moving along the tech- nical track.
  • 26. 26 I am one of those annoying managers who asks people where they’d like to be in five years. I call it “annoying” because it’s a lot to think about. But I still ask it, not because I’m not looking for a per- fect answer, but because it gives them an opportu- nity to consider their future and, usually, they tell me something I should know. Sarah Drasner Director of Engineering, Core Developer Web at Google Sarah Drasner explains why career planning talks with em- ployees are important:
  • 27. 27 For managers > Building a high-performing team Career progression allows a manager or a team lead to create and maintain a growth mindset and continu- ous learning in the company. So, the team is constantly growing, developing skills and performs better, in gener- al. > Increase motivation Long-term goals motivate the team and help to avoid stagnation. Motivation directly influences performance, while a high-performing team is one of the business success factors.
  • 28. 28 > Improve retention Career growth and professional development are the best ways to motivate employees, save top talent and keep the best engineers. For most developers, one of the key factors in choosing a job (or when making the decision to get an offer from another company) is the opportunity for career development and getting new professional perspectives. > Ability to make better decisions Having clear guidelines, a manager can make transpar- ent and reasoned decisions about pay rise, grade raise, hiring, etc. And also to make these decisions transparent, both for the team and for senior management and HR.
  • 29. 29 Promotions should be based on recognition of skill development and consistent demonstration of specific behaviors that lead to greater and more positive impact on the business. Bradford Fults Senior Engineering Leader at SailPoint & Permanent Austinite Bradford Fults speaks of the importance of the professional development of engineers:
  • 30. 30 For HR A hiring bar for each level makes it fairly easy for HR to decide in favor of one or another candidate. It is better to compare specialists with each other, using the system - this is how the company eliminates the human factor. > Fairness and transparency in decision-making process One of the tasks of a recruiter is to find objective crite- ria for understanding whether a developer is ready for promotion or not. Clear steps towards achieving career goals within the company make employees understand that their growth or lack thereof is a fair decision.
  • 31. 31 To that end, having a fair, equitable, and clear framework for leveling and career progression is one of our most important goals. Engineering leaders talk about levels and promotion process- es a lot, but they focus more on the what and not the why. At Carta, we want everyone to understand how the company thinks about fairness and com- pensation, why our leveling processes exist, and what they’re trying to achieve. Jerry Talton, CTO at Carta Jerry Talton tells about Carta’s experience:
  • 32. 32 > Optimize the hiring process Understanding the professional level of a potential em- ployee allows you to more confidently determine the cost of hiring, identify the skillset and, in general, clarify whether the developer will fit into the team and can contribute to the company’s goals. > Transparent decisions on pay raise If career paths are clearly defined and pay grades are tied to specific levels, then this greatly reduces the diffi- culty in negotiating decisions on salary increases.
  • 33. 33 Our Software Engineering Career Ladder is a cru- cial element of Square’s toolkit for supporting engineers’ growth. It helps us ensure that we eval- uate and reward engineers consistently and fairly, regardless of their team, discipline, or background. Michael White Former Head of Engineering at Square, co-founder at Stealth Startup Michael White speaks of how a software engineering career ladder helps to support engineers at Square:
  • 34. 34 > Improve a company’s brand image When a company cares about the professional develop- ment and well-being of its employees and is ready to invest in their education, this always increases its cred- ibility among candidates, making the company a place everyone wants to work. Read a successful case study of motivating employees and retaining the best technical talent with professional development What to Do if Your Devel- oper Comes to Work With an Offer From Another Company? Now you have an understanding of what a career progression is and why it’s important both for an employee and the com- pany. It’s time to find out how to organize a career progression planning for a team and build a career ladder.
  • 35. 35 Must-have toolkit for a manager Before we move to the part on how to professionally plan a career progression for your team, you need to get a basic tool- kit. This is a list of tools (with useful links and templates) that will help manage the career growth of engineers and effec- tively form a career progression framework for them.
  • 36. 36 Tool #1: Skill matrix Skill matrices include a set of skills, required for a certain role. These skills are mapped to levels on a career path, so a manager can understand how to identify the grade of each employee and what skills are required to help engineers skip level. Companies can create their own skill matrices or simply use skill matrix template and adapt them to the needs of their team. Useful link: Free skill matrix templates for 50+ tech roles.
  • 37. 37 Tool #2: Career path template A career path is a roadmap that contains grades and skills and helps developers understand what needs to be done to reach a new career level: both in the manager line and in the expert line. Typically, grades represent the path from junior to senior. But as a company grows, the engineer career path can become more complex. Useful link: Free career path templates for 50+ tech roles.
  • 38. 38 Tool #3: Review Reviews help assess the current skills of a team and identify the requirements for grades. With the help of a review, you can find weaknesses (skill gaps) and points of growth. It is important to hold reviews regularly, to make sure the skills of teammates meet the requirements of a certain grade, as well as checking their professional development progress. To get more information on how to organize an effective skills review of a tech team - read our most detailed guide ever: Software Engineer Performance Review Example. Useful link: Vectorly’s 360-degree reviews.
  • 39. 39 Tool #4: 1-on-1 meetings Personal meetings help to discuss career goals, set OKRs, and build development plans with employees. Also during these meetings, a manager can monitor the employee’s progress and make decisions on grade raise and pay raise. Vectorly has one-on-one meeting templates that help save time on prep and structure the dialogue with a ready-made agenda to make it super effective. Useful link: 1-on-1 meeting templates
  • 40. 40 Tool #5: PDP PDP is a professional development plan that helps a manager approach the engineer career ladder organization systemati- cally and meet both engineer’s career goals and the goals of a company. Good PDP should include a combination of educational activ- ities and working tasks on developing focus skills in order to successfully implement continuous learning in the workflow of a tech team and meet career goals faster. To build an effective PDP for your tech team that will really work - read our guide: 4 Steps to Integrate Professional Devel- opment Plan Into Your Workflow. Useful link: Vectorly’s growth plan
  • 42. 42 If you’re wondering how to write a career progression plan and what the stages of career progression planning are, this part will definitely give you the answers. A good manager should make career progression planning a continuous process. And that’s why: > First of all, a manager should regularly hold reviews to check how the skills of a team meet the requirements of their current grades (and desired levels) and monitor the progress of their professional development. > Secondly, the career progression framework should be updated at least once a year, so the requirements and skills included in it are relevant to the market. Vectorly has come up with a 5-stage career progression plan- ning process. This cycle also includes a meeting schedule, with an agenda and tools necessary at each stage.
  • 43. 43 Build a career progression framework Check progress & make adjustments to PDP Make decisions on level raise Check progress & make adjustments to PDP Update a career progression framework Q1 202 2 Q2 2022 Q3 2022 Q4 202 2 Q1 2023 5-Stage Career Planning Cycle 1 2 3 4 5
  • 44. 44 At this stage, a manager creates a career ladder and imple- ments it in the company. This is probably the most time-con- suming and difficult stage of the career planning process. Yet Vectorly has prepared a step-by-step guide on how to build a software engineer career progression framework, which you can find in the next part of this guide. As a result of this stage, teammates will get a clear under- standing of their career path and what skills they should de- velop, in order to get a grade raise. In short, at this stage, a manager needs to: > Create a list of skills > Set grades > Map skills to grades > Hold 1-on-1 meetings to build a PDP plan Build a career progression framework 1
  • 45. 45 Toolkit: > Skill matrix templates > Career path template > 360-degree review > Meeting templates > Growth plan For more detailed info, check out the next part of this guide - How to build a software engineer career ladder (Example).
  • 46. 46 After the career progression framework has been implemented and a PDP plan has been built, a repeated skill review needs to be held, in order to check the progress of an employee on developing the focus skills from a professional development plan. Also, during this 1-on-1 meeting, a manager should make updates to the current PDP. So, at this stage, a manager needs to: > Hold a review to assess the current level of skills > Make adjustments to a PDP Toolkit: > 360-degree review > 1-on-1 templates > Growth plan This meeting should be held regularly, as you can see in the picture - Q1 and Q4. Check progress & make adjustments to PDP 2
  • 47. 47 Six months after building a career progression framework, it’s time to make decisions on grade raises. A manager should hold a review, in order to see how well employees have suc- ceeded in developing the required skills for their desired posi- tion. On the basis of this review analysis, the manager and HR will make decisions about who will get promoted and get a pay raise. By doing this, the decisions are transparent to all the parties involved - engineers, team leads, and HR. To sum up, at this stage, a manager needs to: > Hold a review to assess the current level of skills > Hold 1:1 to discuss level and pay raise Toolkit > 360-degree review > 1-on-1 templates Decisions on grade raise should be made regularly - twice a year (Q1 and Q3 on the picture). Make decisions on level raise 3
  • 48. 48 This stage repeats #2, as this is the time when a manager checks how the current PDP is being implemented by an em- ployee and makes necessary changes to it. A manager needs to: > Hold a review to assess the current level of skills > Make adjustments to PDP Toolkit: > 360-degree review > 1-on-1 templates > Growth plan This meeting should be held regularly, as you can see in the picture - Q1 and Q4. Check progress & make adjustments to PDP 4
  • 49. 49 After a career ladder has been built and successfully imple- mented into the work of a company, a manager’s goal is to make adjustments to the framework. Skill matrices and career paths of engineers should be updated once a year, in order to make sure that the team’s professional development goals are relevant to the current business goals and meet the require- ments of the industry. So once a year, a manager needs to: > Update the list of skills > Update grades > Map the updated skills to grades > Hold 1:1s on professional development & discuss level raises Toolkit: > Skill matrix templates > Career path template > 360-degree review > Meeting templates > Growth plan Update a career progression framework 5
  • 50. 50 To sum up, the key factor of successful career planning is reg- ularity. The process of implementation of the engineer career progression framework contains a set of regular meetings, which are: > Once a year: create/update a career progression frame- work > Once every six months: make decisions on pay and grade raise, and create new PDP > Once every three months: hold a review to assess the skills and make adjustments to the current PDP This 5-stage career planning cycle will help to make the professional development of every member of a tech team systematic, provide engineers with career development op- portunities within the company, as well as make decisions on promotions and pay raise transparent to all parties involved.
  • 51. 51 Still have questions on how to create a career pro- gression and organize career planning for your team? Don’t worry - Vectorly expert will help you to figure it out on a free 25-min call. Book demo
  • 52. 52 How to build a software engineer career ladder (Example)
  • 53. 53 After reading the previous parts of this guide, you know how the career planning cycle works and have the set of tools you will need to create a career ladder framework for your tech team. Let’s move on to the steps of its creation. This picture below shows the main steps on how to build an engineer career ladder adapted to the current skill level of the team and with transparent requirements for each grade and professional development plans to reach the desired position.
  • 54. 54 Now, let’s dive into details and consider each step mentioned above. Build a career progression framework Step 1 Create a list of skills Step 2 Set grades Step 3 Map skills to grades Step 4 1:1 to build PDP 3.1 Assign people to grades 3.2 Hold skills review 3.3 Get team analytics 3.4 Set requirements for job grades 4.1 Discuss and set career goals 4.2 Discuss and set OKRs
  • 55. 55 Step 1: Create a list of skills At this stage, a list of skills is formed that are necessary for a particular role. The manager can create their own list, or use ready-made skill matrix templates and customize them to the needs of their team.
  • 56. 56 This is how an engineer skill set looks like in Vectorly: Use free skill matrix templates for 50+ tech roles on your email. Get templates
  • 57. 57 Step 2: Set grades (levels) Next, a career path is formed. It contains job levels (or job grades) and their description - what skills are required to take a certain position or skip to the next level. Depending on the size of the company, the career path may look different. You can build your own career path, using a ready-made tem- plate and customize it to the needs of your company.
  • 58. 58 Use Vectorly’s engineer career ladder template for your tech team for free. Get templates
  • 59. 59 Step 3: Mapping skills to grades In order to set relevant requirements for job levels in your team, you need to assign employees to their current grades and run a skills review. After doing this, you’ll get an under- standing of the real level of skills of your teammates of differ- ent grades, and based on these analytics, set the requirements for job levels on a career path. 3.1. Assign people to grades When you have created a career path, distribute employees according to their current grades - Junior, Middle, Senior, Tech Lead (or other levels you have adopted in your company).
  • 60. 60 3.2. Hold a skill review Run a review to assess the skills and get the real picture of the current state of a team. Read: Software Engineer Performance Review Example Hold easy & no fuss 360-degree reviews with Vectorly. Run review
  • 61. 61 3.3. Get team analytics Based on the results of the skills review, get insights on the current state of the team’s skills.
  • 62. 62 3.4. Set requirements for job grades After you have performed a skills review and found the skill gaps, set requirements for every level on a career path. This will help you understand what skills engineers need to devel- op, in order to get a grade raise.
  • 63. 63 Step 4: 1:1 to build PDP Once you have determined the current level of skills of the team members and set the requirements for grades, it’s time to discuss their professional development plans. 4.1. Discuss and set career goals To do this, set up a 1-on-1 meeting, where you discuss what career goals the developer has in mind, as well as their plans regarding their future in the company and salary expectations. 4.2. Discuss and set OKRs. During these 1-on-1 meetings, a manager should also inform an employee about the business goals the company has and set OKRs for them that will help meet these goals. As a result of this discussion, an individual professional de- velopment plan is created, which should include learning and working tasks for developing focus skills. Read: 4 Steps to Integrate Professional Development Plan Into Your Workflow.
  • 64. 64 To save time on prep, use Vectorly’s one-on-one meeting tem- plates, with a ready-made agenda to have a constructive and helpful dialogue with an engineer. Get templates
  • 65. 65 Hold a review and build a carer progression framework for your team on a 25-min all with Vectorly. Book demo
  • 66. 66 BONUS! The Ultimate List of Career Path Templates For 50+ Tech Roles In this bonus part, Vectorly has gathered the fullest list of tech roles and career paths examples. Click on the role and get levels descriptions, what skills you need on each level, as well as career goals examples.
  • 67. 67 Backend Development Career Paths Front-end Development Career Paths Designer Career Paths Career Path Templates For Management Roles Data Science Career Paths Career Paths For Software Testing (QA) Game Development Career Paths Run a review with Vectorly to assess the skills of your tech team. Book demo