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The Reason High-Performers Don’t Get Promoted

The Reason High-Performers Don’t Get Promoted

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Steve Huynh
May 03, 2023
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The Reason High-Performers Don’t Get Promoted
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I have helped many people advance to the next level in their careers. Every single person who was struggling with their next step was smart, diligent, and hardworking. Especially at my current employer, Amazon, everyone is best in class. I would stack a software development engineer (SDE) here against anyone else in the industry.

So what gives? I think it comes down to a misunderstanding between high performance and promotion. High performers excel within their current scope at their role and level. People who get promoted have successfully made the argument that they are capable of handling more responsibility at the next level. High performance at their existing level, therefore, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for promotion.

This is especially true as you advance to higher levels. A mid-level SDE may be just as skilled as a coder, or even better than a senior SDE. The distinction lies in the fact that a senior SDE is also accountable for their team's system design and arc…

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