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Comment by rifung | Hacker News Reader

I have no idea what the problem is with respect to your not getting put up for promotion, but I certainly see a problem in your title.

Working x hours a week doesn't mean you should get promoted. Getting promoted has nothing to do with how hard you work but fulfilling the requirements for you to get promoted. If you want to get promoted, talk to your manager and figure out what you need to do to get promoted.

For example, at Google to get promoted you have to show that you are already performing at the level you want to be promoted to. The difference between different levels has nothing to do with how many hours or how hard you work, but with scope, so unless you're given a project that has an appropriate scope for the next level, you aren't going to be able to be promoted, and it's much easier to get things which help you fulfill those requirements if you talk to your manager.

In summary, talk to your manager and good luck.

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Sounds great in theory, unfortunately, this doesn't really work in many situations because you need to be doing the job you were hired for.

Really, do you want more money or a better title? A better title doesn't really help at all and in fact can hinder. What you want is more money. Best way to get that is to move to another company.

If you want to be promoted to management, you need to learn politics and management. Lots of books on audible can help you with that.

>>Really, do you want more money or a better title? A better title doesn't really help at all and in fact can hinder.

If you have opportunity on one hand and money on the other. Always chose opportunity, because a good opportunity will lead to better money in the future.

Spoken like someone with plenty of money in the bank, which is of course a luxurious position to find yourself in. And in those circumstances I agree with you.

But the above doesn't hold for everyone, and thus I don't in general agree with your assessment.

> Sounds great in theory, unfortunately, this doesn't really work in many situations because you need to be doing the job you were hired for.

I assume that when you are asking for promotion you would have already been doing the job you were hired to do and very well at that. That being the case, if you talk with your manager and they know you want to get promoted and are willing to help you, I see no reason they would be upset about you performing at a higher level.

Of course, every company and even team is different so this doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.

> Really, do you want more money or a better title? A better title doesn't really help at all and in fact can hinder. What you want is more money. Best way to get that is to move to another company.

At a well run company, a better title should come with more money but again, all companies are different.

That's a good way of ensuring that you'll only grow laterally, not vertically.

Some transitions take time. Going from engineer to management is one. Most of the people I've met that did this stayed at a company for several years to make that jump happen.

Why is this important? Going from place to place as an engineer might net $5-10k per hop, but the numbers and incentives from going from engineer to management and then transitioning into another company are much much larger.

to add color: your manager at Google will outline exactly what OKRs you need to hit to have a good chance at being successful for that promotion, even if it doesn't mean that you'll get that promotion right away. (It can take years to go from a 4 to a 5.) But the onus of keeping track of those OKRs and ensuring that both parties know they are being met is on the engineer.

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