agree with positive suggestions here. (2): Wow, thanks for the early + great feedback. Microsoft Compensation Software Engineer $ 80K $ 225K Average Compensation: $101,338 Senior Cloud Software Engineer $ 90K $ 175K Average Compensation: $128,000 Principal Software Engineer $ 90K. As for asking for promotions, I disagree that you must always be asking. Don't be afraid to ask your manager some very direct questions.Don't force the issue. I think there's only one thing I would add, from the perspective of having been promoted from L59 to L64 in a 6-year period in one org (I left MS in 2006).Sometimes things within an org will turn to complete crap, and either there's not an option to leave or you may not want to. Whether your manager is hardcore or touchy-feely, you need a bulldog to promote you or you ain't goin' nowhere. I heard that promotion budgets are significantly reduced at below 65 level. Its a bit like the famous phrase about the definition of obscenity. I've seen some extremely senior developers propose solutions to problems, but be totally unconvincing. While I lost a few people who drove great results in that level, overall it was good for their career and also MS over time. Regarding the comment about the ability to own a room - This is a very good self-calibration technique. EQ/IQ and Collaboration. You should be on the same side. 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. For many in our sub, MCS seems to be the place of incompetent managers and just a pitstop to somewhere else. If you have potential and luck then you can achieve promotion velocity of one level every 18 months.Finally, heres my advice for who aspire for L62->L63 jump: Look around. What advice do you need? I just want to grow, and I am aware that it does not translate to a promotion always. Experienced sales manager with skills in strategy, lead of direct reports, developing sales forecasts, products pricing and launching new products to the marketplace.<br>Proven abilities to manage key account relationships and large-scale projects.<br>Experienced in presenting to executive senior management, meeting with customers at CxO level and coordinating salesmen's Activities.<br><br . Is this a normal situation and should I not be worried?MCS has different pressures regarding levels. If you can learn to do this you become incredibly valuable.5. You want to test more cases than he does, you want to build something that draws users to what you're doing more than to his.Having part of the bonus be for how the team succeeded relative to the other teams might focus competition towards the competition and not exclusively on co-workers.Add up the review scores of each team member and rank teams. Had I only known this info when I started at Microsoft. One, we bill customers higher for higher levels and we call everyone 'highly experienced' or even an 'architect'. The job is the same, just the levelling differs. I'm a level 62 dev trying to get to 63. Both job switches came from conversations I had with former co-workers or former directors. The way to succeed here is to find out how you make you, and your manager, and his/her leads, succeed as a team. But it is also clear that there are places at Microsoft where these skills are not required until higher.I have a 62 test somehow make it to dev with mediocre dev skills, social skills limited to indifference or hostility, who managed to delegate most of the hard work to a smart kid hired to work with him and he made it to 63. Oh, please. This will only lead us to a healthy and balanced distribution of levels across genders. Senior Director, Head of Data Sciences VMware Aug 2014 - Jul 20217 years Bengaluru Area, India Global Leader and Head of Data Sciences Lead Data scientist teams across Bangalore, Bulgaria, Palo. Also, never ascribe to malfeasance what may simply be due to incompetence. Its performance is compromised by your pandering to the RIAA and MPAA. This is a large part of his job - getting his reports to excel and getting them (and by extension, himself) some recognition.All of the above assumes you don't suck, though. Make them successful at their job. You havent seen nothing yet. Third, working on that weakness DAILY (but not exclusively) until they overcome it. Folks, Im really encouraged by this post and the focus on trying to help make others great. If I was looking at reducing costs this isn't exactly where I'd set my sights first but again this is Microsoft we're talking about. If you're going into that comfort zone of complaining about politics and butt-kissing and favorites, do me this favor: hold your right palm up, nice and flat like you're about to be sworn in to testify in a trial, and now extend your right arm out nice and wide, and then quickly swing your right arm around the front of you in a nice arc that ends with the flat of your right hand quickly connecting to the left side of your face for a hard, resounding slap. All of my experience is in the product development groups at MS (dev/test/pm) so my observations may not apply elsewhere. They know that if the team does well, they will do fine.5. If you job simply doesn't scale to that next level - and many don't / can't - then you need to build rapport with your manager to have a focused career discussion about what roles are around to get you there and how you could land in one.2. Its above level 64 that things get tough, but getting to 64 isn't difficult. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did in some ways. There is always a manager who understands the underleveling of Office and old-Windows (hello Sinofsky - promos for all who stuck around regardless of merit!) Very few jobs are leveled across more than 2 levels but most jobs could be more than on level (depending on the candidate something could be a 61 or 62).To take on more you need to be doing two things:1. Skilled in Surfer 8, MS Project, Primavera, Microsoft Excel, Analytical Skills, Customer Service, Customer Success Management, Vendor Management and Sales. Do you think I can find a way to do almost as well and stay here, in this job I enjoy?" I came in at L61 2+ years ago. Don't give up.I'd appreciate it if you'd do a similar post on the 65 to 65 transition. Your response is private Was this worth your time? "The hardest point for me to bear is that I am young, capable of doing so much more, and absolutely dying to do more. From my perspective (L67) here's what you need to nail:1. If you are within striking distance of level 63 in the next few years, then consider yourself VERY fortunate. I say this because I have seen really smart people shunned because of 'house-on-fire' attitudes even when they were dead right. I've been at Microsoft six years.I've never spent one second honestly thinking about my career or how to get a promotion or anything like that. Like any organization MS has its own unique culture and cannot possibly be all things for all people. Specifically, what did they accomplish, and what contributions do you see them doing to justify their promotion? Being irreplaceble is bad because you spend more times on coding/fixing bugs and there is less time to work on your visibility. By contrast high performers have a fairly accurate self assessment, but are slightly self critical of themselves as well as others. The details in front of you are just details. Microsoft Software Engineering Manager salary levels ranges from 63 (SDE Lead) upto 80 (Corporate VP), with 80 (Corporate VP) level earning average salary of $4851k along with $3675k worth of stock options. What I've learned is be very, very specific on your commits and accountabilites. Hired at L58 in 2000 - Currently L62 and the last 2 promos were at 18mo intervals. BG for a big PG in a medium/large sub)L63 = director, then onwards to GM etc62->63 is a tough jump where you need to take ownership for a business segmentYou can go up to L60 pretty easily by nailing commitments year on year and showing you can thrive on increased responsibility, after that it gets harder and you need to proactively lead and drive results that impact the wider business significantly.If you're in sales, it's pretty much all about the total quota you influenceIn my experience, my advice is:- network and help make other groups successful (ideally in a win/win context)- be proactive, propose and grab new challenges and be successful with them- deliver against the CSP's/commitments for the next level up, when you have mastered the current level- make your boss look good, and make his/her boss look good. So honestly, what is your boss's answer about if you'll reach L63? With wide-eyed wonder he asked WHAT? I said whatever the @#$% your manager most needs you to do!6. Lots of very true points. Do you know why? Difference between getting promoted to L65 and joining as new FTE at L65 is HUGE. The last thing I would ever think about is what my boss thinks of me; I just don't care. I am happy to be an L63, trying to get to L64 so I can relate.How I got here (I started as an industry hire 61 about 5 years ago):1. Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. 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. I'm a Level 64 in Office and I agree that the Level Compression puts a crimp in promotion velocity in Office. Is there a way one can dream of getting promoted in this noxious environment which is the oabg? What are the levels for non eng roles? It sounds fishyMy manager was also saying me something along the same lines. I have known some that do what is barely enough for "achieve" just because it is safe. An Australian graduate with over 23 years of experience in the IT industry covering various business natures and sizes across startups and large corporations taking on roles from full-stack development in both open source and Microsoft technology stack to architecture design and strategic roles such as Technical Director/CTO. Find out if you have a positive trajectory in the stack ranking. But power plays are at work and I get smacked when I try and take on extra work.So my question to the more experienced is this - how does one get the attention of management when they are focused on their own problems, their favorite underlings (of which I am not one), and when there is not enough work to go around? .css-1odorsr{display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;font-weight:700;}.css-1ln5qhx{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;font-weight:700;}.css-1dmvvgc{margin:0;color:#0060b9;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:-webkit-inline-box;display:-webkit-inline-flex;display:-ms-inline-flexbox;display:inline-flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;font-weight:700;}Get your salary negotiated .css-1npej63{-webkit-user-select:none;-moz-user-select:none;-ms-user-select:none;user-select:none;width:1em;height:1em;display:inline-block;fill:currentColor;-webkit-flex-shrink:0;-ms-flex-negative:0;flex-shrink:0;-webkit-transition:fill 200ms cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) 0ms;transition:fill 200ms cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) 0ms;font-size:1.25rem;margin-left:-4px;}or your resume reviewed by the real experts - recruiters who do it daily. That sounded like a complete crock to me. But it's no guarantee that all your peers will match. So either keep slapping yourself or choose to wake up. I've changed jobs but came back to the group that's been the most supportive. Jobs are leveled, not people - make sure the job you have includes the scope needed for the level you want. So he is looking to become partner this year on the team's work. The PM team loved having my technical expertise freely available, and I actually really like designing features too.Anyway, two simple things, but I think what Mini said about not doing this IN ORDER to get promoted is key. You want to be more efficient, smarter than him. My experience is a constant melee of *every* single person trying to influence cross-group. My first year I thought for sure I would sit at L61 for another year, but to my surprise I was promoted to L62 without even a full FY under my belt. After I became a lead & manager, I was given a team in turmoil after a re-org and straightened that out. weeks to find another position within the company, otherwise they are laid off.Given 6 weeks to find a position now is a suicide (since most groups can't hire due to the freeze). The key thing is finding the right team and manager, along with the comments you made. >Apple's about to ship Snow Leopard with no new features. i asked him if he knew the absolute most important thing for him to do to get promoted. The problem is you can't tell if you've done something to piss him off or if he's doing it because he has to. Microsoft Jobs and Salary Information | Ladders. And the place where MS has the most non-contributing overheads is Redmond. But anyway, EOF for that angle. Only one can emerge, and not everyone can be a senior simultaneously. Should I trust my manager or is this just one more of his demonstrations of poor management skills? The way to get to a higher level is to increase the scope of your contributions.In our group (somewhere in STB), L63 seems to begin with having at least 2 reports. Do it nicely. Why? So one big part is do good work, but another is don't do bad work.I think it's a very good idea to ask for a promotion. I believe that the most fundamental difference between level 62 and 63 is in the realm of EQ (emotional quotient, see the book Working With Emotional Intelligence" by Goleman). After that, I was given a team that was in trouble quality wise 6 months before shipping. In response to Kelly Calvert:Regarding..Also, its important to keep in mind that it is impossible to provide a perfect definition of any level. take the time to find a mentor that is a great fit for you and the issue you're working on.