WingNews logo WingNews GitHub [2]

RPeres's comments

RPeres | 4 years ago | on: Dropbox Engineering Career Framework

There are a lot of comments being against frameworks like this, as a manager, after having a quick glance, it's a pretty decent one compared to other things I have seen. It's important to note a couple of things, before we even look at the framework itself.

Different people want different things. A lot of people want to code and to be left alone. A lot of other people don't. They want to feel they are progressing towards something. Good frameworks usually state: we consider you as a senior if you are doing X & Y consistently. This helps people aligning their actions/work with a level. The group of people that usually don't care about this things, might start doing so, when their title (e.g. "Software Engineer") lacks the "senior" keyword and they are applying for a senior role elsewhere. This might seem nitpicking, but you would be surprised how many people don't even pass the first screening because they don't have the "senior" prefix. In bigger companies monetary compensation is assigned according to the person's level. In smaller companies, not so much. Everyone has the same title, and people can have significantly different salaries. A good career framework makes it very clear to everyone that if you want to earn between X and Y you need to be at a particular level.

As for the framework itself, I am big fan of giving examples. Say for instance on IC3: "I’m able to navigate ambiguity and remain resilient through ups and downs". I would love if they assigned a somewhat real example: "I am able to complete tasks, even when the acceptance criteria is not 100% clear.". They did well with the separation of the different functions: QA, Software Eng, Security Eng & Reliability Eng. A lot of places bundle some of these together and leave people scratching their head.

RPeres | 8 years ago | on: On being an Engineering Manager

I do care deeply about the team and each individual, some of them are my friends. Ultimately, in order for all of us to have a job, the company needs to succeed. But I agree with the nuance. Thanks for the feedback.
page 1