"The L6 distinction refers to the first layer of staff that’s considered senior and typically includes people with about a decade of experience."
That's not true? Isn't "senior SWE" the title for L5 at Google?
That's not true? Isn't "senior SWE" the title for L5 at Google?
But my understanding is that, across most job tracks, it's expected that everyone should get promoted to L5 eventually just by working hard.
While it's never expected to get to L6. You might get to L5 and just stay there forever. L6 requires a certain level of achievement that they don't expect everyone to be able to achieve. That's what sets it apart.
So it makes sense this is the level where they're closing the gate even more.
Not Google but I worked at a mid-size US based company briefly last year.
The team was junior but senior in titles and highly opinionated, that was why I ended up leaving as nothing was getting done. Not last week I got a bunch of LinkedIn updates saying “Congratulate X being promoted to Senior/Staff/Principal Engineer”.
The grads I worked with who were good and what you expect for a grad where getting promoted to senior’s and the seniors who were ok, maybe a little inexperienced were getting promoted to staff.
I think roles mean nothing these days. They’re devalued and only exist for people to move up in to the next pay band.
What I consider senior from 15-20 years ago is staff engineer now and principal today feels like someone at the top of senior 15-20 years ago.
So L6 was the first elective level. Anyone who reached it did so by opting in, rather than just going with the flow. That is why it carries a bit of weight.
All this was more true back in the 2000s. (Source: me, ex-Googler, 2003-22.)
L5 is mostly about reaching greater depths with your skills as an L4, L6 is more about gaining breadth that isn't guaranteed just by being an L5 for a while