Thank goodness for this blog, where MS employees are free to talk about their personal struggles, unlike "other" blogs that censor/prohibit such discussions, so that they can live in some fantasy land and avoid dealing with the real issues. I saw several far more technically skilled people in the group who deserved this that were passed over. Much longer if new leadership comes from outside MS. Don't perform flawlessly to the above 70+ pieces of feedback only to see the churn above you. That is a great post Mini. If you know higher leveled people in another org, ask them to poke holes in your proposals. Averages based on self-reported salaries. When you see a bozo who is L65 it is highly likely that he had joined MS recently at L64-L65 directly.Here's biggest difference in expectations between levels: The L62 guys are supposed to be able to lead their feature and perhaps influence couple of related features by spreading their best practices. * Leaving the company - oh, the all too easy escape: I have seen that mentioned in quite a few comments. Aren't those the things you are best at? Know what is going to make your product succeed, know what is going to make your team succeed, know what part of that you can achieve. Last August (different group), I received a dreaded "Limited II", in spite of my manager telling me that he didn't actually think I was in the "bottom 10" at Microsoft, but that the devil made him do it (so to speak) and that it was a "no-brainer" for him. Somebody help me out here. The conclusion: its price today! If your boss isn't banging his fist on the table for you, it won't happen. That's the wall you need to talk about, but the discussion would be very different than the L63 bump.And after 5+ years at L64, I finally just left. Sometimes the answer is, "well, we'll see" and other times the answer is, "if they'd only stop doing X and start doing Y on a sustained basis, I could see it". I am a HR manager. So honestly, what is your boss's answer about if you'll reach L63? Leverage your professional network, and get hired. I am going through some finanical hardships and is getting the level changed is the only way for a salary increase? Ive seen many people who didnt quite fit at MS go off and be very successful at other companies, starting their own biz, changing careers, by finding a better fit for themselves. Lots of groundwork, considerable drama and leverage but eventually it got done. Will a team that needs exactly the skills and interests that you have pass on you because of some HR guideline? Therefore, you are an HR manager. While a manager can help coach you, and you can follow the advice in this post and comments (most of which are great, by the way), you have no way of knowing if there are 0 or 10 people also on the team doing the same things, ahead of you for the limited number of promotions available. And how do you represent yourself as a leader and influencer when you are in a room with 6 other people vying for the exact same thing? He identified the common denominators in becoming an expert in practically any field. "Now that the Annual review is approaching"You're probably too late already. I spend a lot of my time these days working with partner teams to help them solve their own problems or create wins for their teams even if it only peripherally touches my area. Got two promotions - still level 60. You must ask for a promotion when you think you are ready. take the time to find a mentor that is a great fit for you and the issue you're working on. You may be one of those who diligently turn over every single rock to look at problems within the org. Their self criticism spurs them to improve. Discussion: First off, I'm going to be hard-core about comments here. This means there are 24 distinct job levels at Microsoft. This is a discussion to foster debate and by no means an enactment of policy-violation. I'm not even thinking about level 63 at this point. You're selling it in no less than eight different SKUs, (including the upgrades) and your marketing message is deliberately obfuscated to convince the customers to go for the most expensive one. For many in our sub, MCS seems to be the place of incompetent managers and just a pitstop to somewhere else. How do you ensure there is no conflict of interest. Browse all Microsoft salaries . I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did in some ways. Just pick one Job id, prepare for it and then go for internal. That's why Microsoft is pissing away the monopoly that you inherited from IBM. Microsoft Salary. Had I only known this info when I started at Microsoft. After all, if you think you are already ready, and your manager doesn't, there is probably some way you can improve that you don't understand -- this is something you want to figure out.6. You've told me you're not willing to have the hard career conversation with me and/or that you're not willing to do what I told you needed to be done when we had that conversation. I would get vague directives like you need to be the thought leader or you need to improve your system knowledge. Mini himself is quite high level and knowledgable. They are trying to get attention from upper levels more harder then you. I was an asshole, but I was better than my peers at getting shit done -- I was a PM in DevDiv at the time. I want to share some of my thoughts about succeeding at Microsoft and reaching Level 63, the Senior contributor level at Microsoft. Now the setup team for most products has more than 6 devs. Think about it. Why? Levels 57 and 58 are reserved for non-permanent employees and Levels 59 and 60 are reserved for New Graduates. Barring extraordindary circumstances each year you will get the "welcome to our group" evaluation.Don't forget the aunts and uncles. See next bullet. At L63 you should be directing v-teams, serving as a lead or possibly even having direct reports. There were times when I was promoted more slowly than I probably could have been, but I am very happy with where I am now, and I am still growing. So most new hires at MS are L63 by default and they obviously don't have to work at it :).I actually find the content of this post to be superficial, fairly naive and not reflective of my experience having moved through the ranks from 59 to >65.I would not give most of this advice to our campus hires as any kind of roadmap. Entry level (428) Associate (378) Mid-Senior level (3,385) Director (2,581) Done . Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. So no time like the present to practice where you can. Why? I spend a long time a 61 about 4.5 years mostly because I changed groups alot. Up or out as they say.I found a niche I was happy in. How many has Live hired this year and OneCare gets cut? Repeat. Senior Director Global Supply Chain Management transformation Supply Chain Operations SA Juli 2022-Heute9 Monate Lausanne Metropolitan Area Principal Consultant for an international. Senior-level employees have the most decision-making power at a company and are meant to provide leadership and guidance to employees with less seniority. don't make enemies), change jobs about once every 3-4 years, and do your job reasonably wellfor a decade. We need to grow out of this bad legacy syndrome that we still have. In this article, we have explained the Job levels at Microsoft which starts at SDE and goes up to Technical Fellow. Owning big features, knowledge about code base, ability to help your peers - irrelevant. This is all well and good, but in 9years I've never worked in a group with a Senior IC (Windows, IE, .NET), though some architects. Why cannot we have our address title reflect our level as everybody else in the company?Not giving quite as snide a response as the previous posterAsk your management. Find the right team and manager.2. But on balance mgrs at MS get things right a lot more often than they get them wrong or we wouldnt be one of the most highly capitalized companies in the history of biz. Strategy and Product Leader for an omni-channel team encompassing blended physical-digital experiences that combine personalized services with customer relationship strengthening across 400- centers. I joined The Company 2 weeks ago, far from 63, but all you said it's very valuable for defining a career path. Exceptional Director, hardworking, reliable, efficient, a team player, flexible to work 24 hours shift rota, prioritise my workload at all time, managing customers and team, managing safely, ability to carry out Risk Assessments and how to manage such Risks to minimal, excellent report written skills, excellent communicate skills both verbal and written forms including presentation using . Absolutely. This is certainly the course that I took. How do you get the right job/work that will make the impact. Thanx for it. you want to complete A and A requires 10 devs. The skip level is totally nonchalant to her ways. I wasn't sure I was going to get out of a couple of those situations but after everyone of them, I was stronger and smarter.Take the challenge and go after tough problems. The funding for our project stopped and our vendor team of 28 people have been asked to leave immediately. Even with all good intentions, they can even be ineffective mentors (although I still highly recommend the mentoring program, as long as you change your mentor every year). How accurate is this most likely Total Pay range (base + additional) of $396K-$652K/yr? If you have your mnanager in your pocket, you cna achieve greate heights in life. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users. Email@ elliereinker@gmail.com | Call@ 330-554-0249. Senior Director, Data & AI South East Asia lead i.a Aug 2021 - Jan 20226 months Singapore 33NFT Admin & Ops 33NFT Sep 2021 - Present1 year 7 months Netherlands 33NFT is one of the top anonymous. Satya Nadella. I will mis-direct and confuse you with hearsay. I think you should play some games while searching for you L63 promotions. If I ever do decide to come back to MSFT, I will do so as a level 68+ and nothing less. Microsoft is so unique (and not in a good way) that you need to have blogs like this and focus on managing your career inside the hobbesian nightmare, rather than making good and cool software. Amazon A mistake was a huge cost. Avoid long-winded multi-point e-mails, boil down your points as succinctly and efficiently as possible. By then I had already already set up several clients as in independent consultant, so I declined to stay. When I gave notice, my PUM was in my office within an hour showing me stock levels at 65 and 66, willing to restructure my position pretty much to my liking. Senior Director, Industry Advisor Life Sciences Salesforce Aug. 2020-Heute2 Jahre 8 Monate Zrich, Switzerland Building Go To Market Strategies; growing and driving industry thought leadership. Microsoft employees make an average base salary of $208k & a total compensation of $280k. I sat there at L64 for 5+ years. I'm not talking about "managing up" (though that helps a little if done properly) but it's all about understanding your manager and skip manager's priorities and proactively succeeding in those areas. As a L64 I find getting to 65 quite a wall. And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm 99.9% sure what needs to change is you. Until you can be honest with yourself (and it's not fun, trust me) you will be stuck doing what you're doing and your complaining will be the glue keeping you there. Then perhaps you're stuck at L62. In my own experience, even after being a great developer for 2+ years, with straight 4.0 scores at that time, and despite having Dev Manager roles before Microsoft, I would be turned down on informationals for Dev Lead positions with the simple question: Have you been a Dev Lead at Microsoft?