senior director microsoft level senior director microsoft level

Vendors are also having it bad. Feedback is not detailed or actionable. 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. Know when your market worth changes with our verified salaries newsletter, See exactly how much your competitors pay. 1. I made it to L63 in a year (I was probably under leveled when I arrived). We discussed progress at least once a month. My old boss was a 65 but his title was "principal director of engineering", new boss is the exact same level and job and his title is "principal engineering manager". For example, see http://www.intropsych.com/ch07_cognition/learning_curve.html. Think about it. The Making of an Expert: in the great Harvard Biz Review article of this title the author debunks the myth that experts are born, rather than made. There is only one item in this list: visibility. This is hard for your manager -- he probably doesn't have a clear idea of what it will take to make the case. Going from Level 62 to Level 63 is more about EQ than IQ. Being a TS can work the same way. I'm an SDE, so a large part of my time in the product cycle is spent fixing bugs. Oh, please. So yes, Mini's list should get you to 63 anywhere. Eventually, their team will remove itself from his control through internal transfers to teams with better managers, and the asshole ends up getting canned in a re-org if he doesn't see the writing on the wall and use his Apple resume entry to jump to some other company.The fact that you praise someone for "junk yard dog mode" shows me that Microsoft has a fundamentally broken corporate culture, and that you are part of the problem.-jcr, Think of the guy in the other companyI don't like where this is goingThat is the guy to beat.No, No, NO!Think of the customer, not the competition! Absolutely not Definitely yes 3 1 David Lean Worked at Microsoft (company) (1990-2009) Upvoted by Jack Schofield , Computer journalist who has covered Microsoft for 35 years. No managers seems to want to talk to the previous managers for promo stuff and each wants at least 12 mos of time to think to observer. Thanx for it. "Sad but true. When I was an IC, it was tough technical problems or simply critical problems that no one else wanted. My queries on any specific guidance would get no response or the response that youre a 62 and you should be able to figure it out. microsoft senior program manager salary redmond It sounds fishy. When she finally left the company four years ago things improved greatly. Thanks for starting this. You'd do well to read it again:Success in business comes from serving your customers, not about beating your competition. This employer has claimed their Employer Profile and is engaged in the Glassdoor community. You should be able to show the path to a goal, especially to collections of people who do not report to you. The news is in. Your response is private Was this worth your time? I came from .NET (no longer there), and there were plenty of Senior IC PMs and Devs.Are you in Test, Marketing or Documentation? 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. I think that a compentent dev not a superstar, who follows your advice should make it to 63. These posts are provided "as-is" with no warranties and confer no rights. So far, we all appear to have jobs, but man, what a shocker, I thought ours was one of the more stable teams.Not sure what happens to our Director, he seemed a bit shocked himself when he delivered the news today. By persist, I do not mean being happy to be at the same <63 level for 3+ years for exmaple. Your lead. You're cursed for life.2. Remember: what worked for some other person, at some other time, may not work today. Not so at L63. Levels are a bit easier to achieve in MCS. Everything else is irrelevent or works against your promotion. What is up with the gold star awards? Thus promotions are easy to L62 - if you don't make 62 quickly, there is something wrong. Our entire unit was let go but we were moved to different groups in the org. Mini -- you left out the most important option, which I took. While cash bonuses stay relatively stable as a percentage of salary over the course of a Microsoft employee's career, stock compensation can rise to nearly 20% of annual income at higher levels, according to the crowdsourced data. It can help you identify blind spots which may be holding you back.7. It was then that things ground to a halt. Who da'Punk Achieving Senior Level 63 at Microsoft - Blogger 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? Any idea on when is this going to change? Thanks for keeping this focused. The only thing you learn is your bucket, and roughly where in the bucket you fit based on your numbers. Email@ elliereinker@gmail.com | Call@ 330-554-0249. As HR Director, Claire helps drive the outstanding business impact, cultural transformation, and growth of Microsoft in the UK. So far, I haven't been successful. And if you have a manager who thinks that way, then your manager is a doofus who will never help anyone succeed. I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did in some ways. Senior Director Resume Examples And Templates In 2023 - Zippia The "Most Likely Range" represents values that exist within the 25th and 75th percentile of all pay data available for this role. the answer is simple - take on more. Can someone explain to me the leadership hierarchy | Fishbowl Of course not. And you know something? Senior Director Levels at Microsoft 63 (Senior Manager) 64 Principal EM (Principal Director of Engineering) 66 Senior Director (67) GM, Partner (SDE Group Manager) 69 VP (70) Corporate VP (80) Executive VP (81) View 7 More Levels United States No region found, search all locations Greater Seattle Area San Francisco Bay Area View All Data You can be a genius of blinding brilliance, but if you come from a boring product team, you "don't have much potential". Yes, we have tons of info on the HR websites and yes, there are steps you should take. The second was threat (I have a serious offer outside the company that I am taking). Go for the team that offers the best package right during the transfer. . below 63 one has low influence and above 64, it is more strategizing and less execution.Overall, my experience has been that promotion is the effect of results and good work. Worked my ass off and finally get recognized as Snr contributor. And on one total-eclipse-rare occasion, I've been able to be answer the follow-up question: will they reach L65 and say with confidence: Absolutely. If your boss isn't banging his fist on the table for you, it won't happen. Be very careful, because some people may tell you about this or that great thing they did, and only mention that they are (or were) married to this General Manager, or that they have been in the team since it was only 2 people, and the other person today is a VP. Don't just take a L63+ role because of the level. Microsoft Jobs and Salary Information | Ladders. Today's top 83,000+ Senior Director jobs in United States. The hardest work item on his place was an expression parser that the team's architect wrote for him. Don't make promises to follow up on things and then let them drop. All you have to do is look at the level distribution, there is a large dropoff in positions at 65. . Obviously a key word in my advice was explicitly. Its difficult to transfer to a new position because at a high level, what group is going to take you on to a new position you have no experience in. Given that quite a few Microsofties are going to find themselves locked into their current group for a while, the ability to succeed by swinging on the vines to a new group is going to be rare. For context, I have always been "exceeded" or "high achieved", If you want to dig a bit more around job titles which gives you an idea of someones level or the dispersion of a team, remember that the title you see in Outlook is not the real title, its just the address book title. L68 would not be referred to as Director. > Lots of very true points. Or you wait until you get escorted out.I dont know what the final outcome of my situation will be but I expect in the end, I will think it was for the better.Good luck to all in your Microsoft careers, but pay attention to the levels, CSPs and how stack rankings work. You will never get your promotion on a silver platter. Software development at MS has become more complex and much more collaborative. This means there are 24 distinct job levels at Microsoft. But they don't have the same visibility that your manager has in your specific org. When it comes to where you actually rank and what you get paid that part is all that matters. It turns out that typically your immediate manager has little control, it's all decided at higher levels. 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. I'm interested in hearing your stories of success, mentorship, and turning a career that was off-path back on-track. senior director - $446k . Know where you are in the stack and understand how you will rank higher next year.BTW, forgot to mention I was a manager for the second half of my career. My manager told me a while ago that I was about to get one. "Ain't seen nothing yet" is a more popular variant of the same due to a song with that title and refrain. Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. more often than not it is up to the employee to use the resources, show maturity and commonsense and move up62 -> 63 is difficult and there is a reason behind it. I just want to grow, and I am aware that it does not translate to a promotion always. Apple should in no way be throwing stones at Microsoft in this regard. When someone gives you the hard advice to succeed, it's quite the gift. Also, there's 2 ladder, management ladder and seniority ladder. Leak of Microsoft Salaries Shows Fight for Higher Compensation If you're not an Absolutely! The estimated total pay for a Senior Director at Microsoft is $500,742 per year. I work in MSN and we still have no way to know the levels of our peers. Apple's about to ship Snow Leopard with no new features. Outside of those two situations, I have never asked for a promotion. jcr said >Apple's about to ship Snow Leopard with no new features. I'm now past my time that I can recruit away from MSFT after leaving some time ago. And do you anticipate what happened when I made the next move to Dev Manager position? They will have thought this out. You are employed by Microsoft's shareholders. How senior is a 'director' at Microsoft? - Quora How bad is this? Got two promotions - still level 60If you really got promoted twice then you would have advanced 2 levels.Either you didn't actually get promoted, or someone told you lies. It going to be more about survival in the current business climate. Perhaps someone can explain to me how you get successfully promoted without your boss's support. Senior directors are tenured members of an organization who are considered part of the leadership or executive team, in which they represent their department or division. Senior Account Executive | Director | Sales & Marketing. We've negotiated thousands of offers and regularly achieve $30k+ (sometimes $300k+) increases. Eventually you have to make that leap or you arent ever going to get your hands on that other bar. I joined Microsoft at L63 in Office and found it to be a freakshow of people NOT working together but understanding that no team work was better for getting a promotion FAR better than I did having come from the Valley. That is, its hard to define, but I know it when I see it. I sat there at L64 for 5+ years. How you perform in interview is going to matter on whether you get proper mapping or not. Promotion to 63 happened to me 2 years ago when I helped ship Office 2007. In my org the cut is 70% on promos. Babatunde Hamzat Ashogbon - Founder/Owner/Director/Senior Project L68 is partner, or you may see GM. Expertise in the following areas: Product Marketing Consistently created groundbreaking, customer-focused value . This way I can be in a better position to show that I am a "absolutely!" Bottom line is this: It's very easy to find imperfections. "2) Peel the onion. Alternately, you can increase the scope of your own job and justify an increased level.So the only real question is, what do you need to do differently at the higher level? My biggest struggle has been getting good feedback on where I need to grow. This slighlty contradicts some of the other posts. 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 made sure I was the guy you wanted to call when the server crashed in the lab with a crazy callstack and no repro.Second, OWN the features. I know devs who got in at the wrong level and paying the price because they didnt negotiate their level correctly when they joined. as many others posters said: if you are worry too much about promotion chances are you will keep worrying. Title doesn't matter, that's a job description. If your boss is saying "Yes, ready for promo now" and your skip is saying "No, not now" well, why? Mini, as good as your writeup is, there is too much emphasis on this level promo business in MS, and I have seen my fair share of people that have been burnt by it. Third, working on that weakness DAILY (but not exclusively) until they overcome it. Asshole managers aren't unknown at Apple [] The fact that you praise someone for "junk yard dog mode" shows me that Microsoft has a fundamentally broken corporate cultureThanks for a nice belly laugh to re-energize my morning. I want to share some of my thoughts about succeeding at Microsoft and reaching Level 63, the Senior contributor level at Microsoft. "Your Recently Promoted L63 Peers"? We have covered both technical and management track at Microsoft. That is one aspect where they are forced to build fake relationships with directors and GMs to get promoted and unfortunately those who maintain good relatiship with them get promoted. For example, some are principal individual contributors that just stayed for too long in a group and became essential, but now want to move on and cannot do that, either because their skills are obsolete or because they simply cannot go to a new startup team at such high level without any management responsibility, and they are untested managers. Get FREE domain for 1st year and build your brand new site. Your analysis is very true, specially the part about owning the room and be regarded as the domain expert. 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. In the case of the latter, make sure you have the goods, because your manager now must show his/her hand on whether s/he values you. However good your manager is, she or he is still a human with insecurities and ego. Great post! The first levels came quickly with some sticking around 64 and 65 (half my career).I have always taken on and fixed problem areas that no one else wants to take on. Know Your Worth. Levels are different outside the US. ceo/vp/director/manager/lead etc. Only one can emerge, and not everyone can be a senior simultaneously. Excuses and griping and bemoaning aren't the stuff that L63 contributors are made of. an ex-manager used to tell me, if the org needs him to sweep the floor, he would ensure that he would be the best sweeper in the world (no offense to my janitor friends, just an expression). Great and timely post - thank you Mini! Do it nicely. "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. ask around for a good mentor or go to our internal mentor site to be matched with a mentor http://mentor/Mentor/user/mymentoring.asp. One of the key lessons is to know who is the gate keeper for your career. Who cut and paste buggy shit all over the codebase and don't know some of the things that a good L62 should know. 3. Stop fighting which is where mapped. * One final important thought that hasn't been mentioned here and that is very dear to my heart is one that is not only specific to 63 but also to 65+, 66+, and 67+, and it is about moving up when you are a female at MSFT. Averages based on self-reported salaries. The estimated additional pay is $257,304 per year. "The hardest point for me to bear is that I am young, capable of doing so much more, and absolutely dying to do more. I am not worried. It works like this: Senior (L64,63) - works on tactical efforts, writes code or works on projects autonomously, collaborates with others Lots of very true points. If you want to succeed at Microsoft (or anywhere else where you have a boss), the most important thing you can do is figure out exactly what your management wants from you and then make sure you deliver it in spades.Junior people often make the mistake of thinking this means "I will do my job to the best of my ability" and then they go off and work really REALLY hard at things their management doesn't find nearly as important as they do and so come review time these folks are *shocked* to hear that all of their blood, sweat and tears did not make the impression they'd hoped. One could easily sack 4000 heads at HQ and R&D nor revenue would take a hit. It's a question your boss gets asked so it's not a surprise to them. Own your brand. Many 62s (and 63s) make substantially more than 64s. Whenever his lead would ask him to do X he would refuse and insist on doing Y instead. 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. They can be wrong about exactly what these flaws are, but they aren't wrong that you are flawed. What worked for me was to go to my manager and say: "I would like to stay here, at Microsoft, working for you. Ask any old mainframer what it was like to be an IBM customer back in the day. Here's some advice from a recent L64'er (L63 last year). Additionally, a Level 62 doesn't really have the tools to evaluate and sell a promotion to a 63. But the opportunities I see doing X seem to be compelling from a financial and growth standpoint. This is a discussion to foster debate and by no means an enactment of policy-violation. Unless you plan to stay in the same org the rest of the time at MS. Yet, when you have 2 or 3 offers at the end of very hard interview loops, which one are you going to choose: the team that listens to HR or the team that listens to the market? I think that everyone has a bad year or 2 and you should not get worried about spending a lot of years in one level unless you have been on the same team for a long time.So my advice is1. Don't give up.I'd appreciate it if you'd do a similar post on the 65 to 65 transition. Continuously revisit those and discuss with your manager. Anyone moved from Office to some other part of company? It sounds trite, but it's true. Should I trust my manager or is this just one more of his demonstrations of poor management skills? Learn How to State Your Case and Earn Your Raise, Climb the Ladder With These Proven Promotion Tips, A Guide to Negotiating the Salary You Deserve, How to Prepare for Your Interview and Land the Job. A mistake was a huge cost. I'm currently level 66 and started at level 59 (equivalent in old levels) 12 years ago. Add your salary anonymously in less than 60 seconds and continue exploring all the data. Great topic. Stop thinking of your Mgr as your adversary and listen to what they are telling you. Find out if you have a positive trajectory in the stack ranking. Thats a very helpful answer. In my group that's the really tough one. It may be that the policy is to do transparent leveling but it's no one's job to go through and make sure they're up to date. They are the exception that you shouldn't wind yourself up about.And I don't want to focus on them anymore in this comment stream because it's not helpful. Someone that 20 years ago made something as complex as Notepad may today be a VP, whereas if you make Notepad today you may not even get a pat on the back. How do you ensure there is no conflict of interest. Shock and awe awaits. Mini, all those aspects you list are also present at L62, L65, etc. So he is looking to become partner this year on the team's work. There are so many reasons why things didn't happen in a given review cycle. To change Microsoft so that it is small and efficient, and therefore more in line with your thinking?Are you changing your stance because you're leaving the 'hoi polloi' behind? EQ/IQ and Collaboration. (Summarized: Don't ever let your boss be frightened that you'll make him/her look bad. Get yourself a formal or informal mentor who is already doing what you want to be doing. Why are we doing x and not y? Here is a nice place to start :-)http://guestgame.com/. Say B.In a perfect case, B will have 10 devs to transfer to A but when that happen B will be left with 5 testers and 2 PMs. The estimated base pay is $243,438 per year. Might as well fire those guys. i asked him if he knew the absolute most important thing for him to do to get promoted. At a basic level, in a company the size of Microsoft, the higher you go, the less you contribute individually and the more you contribute by your impact on an organization - hiring the right people, setting clear and correct goals, driving alignment and execution. Nowadays, having been there and moved up, I would highly prefer someone that already succeeded as a Lead at Microsoft than a star individual contributor. Take it because it plays to your strengths. I have seen people turn it around. What are the levels for non eng roles? I'm now off the meds, not seeing the psychiatrist, and living happily.Working at MS was both the best time in my life and the worst time. Keep your mouth shut most of the time (i.e. I've changed jobs but came back to the group that's been the most supportive. Now a VP at a small cap (and growing, yes in this economy) company. Let's slim down Microsoft into a lean, mean, efficient customer pleasing profit making machine! And what is happening now trying to move up after becoming a Dev Manager? Copyright 2008-2023, Glassdoor, Inc. "Glassdoor" and logo are registered trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc. Levels 57 and 58 are reserved for non-permanent employees and Levels 59 and 60 are reserved for New Graduates. It's hard for L63. Ugh, not good, not good at all.>Finance is cutting 10% of work force. Ill answer first question later in this comment. One question a manager will think about before promoting you is how many times he had to clean up after you pissed off someone else - especially if it's someone on another team. >Real HR managers from Microsoft would have just three [sic]s in a post of that length.I hope HR gets cut. you want to complete A and A requires 10 devs. You broke the trust cycle so don't expect anything else. They have commitments to grow their employees. No, L7 is 66-67. This is a problem, at least up to level 65. But it's no guarantee that all your peers will match. The skip level is totally nonchalant to her ways. 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. because I have never seen the above formula fail with me in many years or people I know (a sample set of hundreds of person-years), I would agree, right now, level is deflated, 64, and 65 are real barriers, and salary level expand as well. I used to work in the OneCare team. He said this year he could only make strategic promotions, which sounded like promotions of people above 65. Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation. Do a great job and you are likely to revise their expectations for the following cycle. Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. They are 100% star material. I haven't seen one single person getting hired below L63 in my group during last year. After all, they are thinking through if you will be a good peer and will be easy to work with (and make their lives better in some way). I'm not looking for any off-topic comments let alone woe-be-me comments - remember that slap thing? Really inspiring. 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. No one wants an employee who is staying for the money -- and you don't want to be that employee, either. Hired at L58 in 2000 - Currently L62 and the last 2 promos were at 18mo intervals. Never "threaten" to leave or waive external offers in my face unless you're fully prepared to be escorted out of the building that minute. The current distribution is simply pathetic.. New Senior Director Human Resources jobs added daily. did this post dieNo, the Mini-Electronic Brain did. .css-1uhsr4o{margin-right:8px;}Get Paid, Not Played. It's really not that complicated. 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". Otherwise, you start getting limited reviews and your compensation goes down.Obviously there was no advice in this post, but I thought it was an interesting observation, and perhaps the company can learn something from this viewpoint. L63 is very much an important milestone, and in tough-hiring times like these the following question has never been more important: "Will <> reach Level 63 during their career?". When does that year start? After that I got 3 levels in 3 years and now at level 64. This way you have a more clear understanding of the seniority of that particular position and if you search for a group manager you will see the seniority distribution. Most gravitate to safe work that's in their comfort zone or work they enjoy. Be prepared for every possible question, scenario, disaster, etc. If you get caught in a review and someone hits a fastball by you and you stumble, the people above you suddenly have fears that you might stumble when they and you are in front of the person who controls their careers. Lots of groundwork, considerable drama and leverage but eventually it got done. They make decisions that affect both their department and the company, making their role crucial in the pursuit of the company's goals. I've been told HR looks for employees that have been at their level too long. The estimated base pay is $243,438 per year. If you can learn to do this you become incredibly valuable.5. I spend a long time a 61 about 4.5 years mostly because I changed groups alot. Also, go mine some of Dr. Brechner's Hard Code columns. 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. "You might be too smart or have ideas that come from somewhere outside of Redmond which makes you very dangerous and not Microsoft material. Think about why they're able to do that.These two lines really serve to summarize the incoherent blithering that was jcr's post. Getting constant feedback throughout is valuable as you can re-align and re-adjust in an agile way so that you are not shocked at review time that you have completely missed that promotion. There are definitely projects you can work on with your manager to increase your visibility, but if things don't happen right away just keep at it.Your manager should be able to give you fairly specific feedback on where you stand in your skip-level's eyes. on this one. Aspects of an L63 Contributor: some random aspects that come to my mind beyond our CSPs: When I write all of this, I think back to an older piece by Joel Spolsky talking about Rosh Gadol contributors. I've been at the same level for 3.5 years (since I joined MSFT), and while I spent three of those in a group where almost noone at all got promoted (a group which has since essentially dissolved), I'm concerned that my level stagnation reflects poorly on me, even though I've been the major contributor on products that have earned 10x my total compensation package for MSFT. In general, people are not leveled, jobs are. I influenced the features, I lended my expertise on them, and I learned about the customer - all this way before the spec'ing phase. To the person worried about being same level for 3.5 years don't sweat it. Is this confirmed? clinical research associate entry level jobs near me; new laws for first time violent offenders in louisiana. Mgmt, MSFT levels: CEO > VP > Partner(Director) > Principal > Sr. Eng > Eng 2 > Eng 1.