Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation. If youre not doing a great job at your current level youre not even going to be considered for the next level. Executing on what you have now at a high rate/quality level.2. Yes, "soft skills" count.I'm pleased that someone said it.There are a collection of skills that are difficult to quantify that are absolute necessities to succeeding at higher levels. I've been a 62 for too long by Microsoft standards. Flip on the klaxons! Only 1 of the 4 [sic]s were legitimate. Unless you know for sure that your boss's answer is an immediate "Absolutely!" (Not). There may be multiple reasons for pay differences - one of which is a small number of salaries submitted per job. Within the comments, I hope to elicit advice that follows up on what I start here, and maybe even contradicts it.
Microsoft Salaries 2023 | $164k-$4.9M | 6figr.com Vendors are also having it bad. But, if you have the possibility of finding a position that you will really enjoy, where your goals and those of Microsoft are fairly close, then your long-term potential will be higher. Don't be afraid to ask your manager some very direct questions.Don't force the issue. As for asking for promotions, I disagree that you must always be asking. If you are not at the top of your stack rank for your level, you will not get the promo. Do it nicely. Good managers: In general, good managers realize that they need to sell their team's accomplishments. +1 on the level balancing difference in subs.As someone who has transferred employees to/from corp/sub both directions and has promoted a bunch of folk, the corp level for a role is 2 numbers higher than the equivalent sub one.
Microsoft Senior Director Salaries | Glassdoor Know when your market worth changes with our verified salaries newsletter, See exactly how much your competitors pay. 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?"1. Ask any old mainframer what it was like to be an IBM customer back in the day. 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. Thoughts? So far, I haven't been successful. Satya Nadella. "Now that the Annual review is approaching"You're probably too late already. Browse all Microsoft salaries . So I cultivate relationships with my manager's peers; their support helps tremendously. I thought what I did was valuable but in the end, it wasn't.The Microsoft up or out policy is the prime directive. Is that a req. Ah, dude, my boss is in the way of my promotion. 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. Mini could you please confirm or deny this.
Microsoft Jobs and Salary Information | Ladders. I heard that promotion budgets are significantly reduced at below 65 level. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I also agree with the promotion-on-transfer point. I also don't know if this is the first step towards a lay-off, but for now, it seems we'll have jobs for a few more months.Ugh, not good, not good at all. There are so many reasons why things didn't happen in a given review cycle. Obviously, this is advice that you may not apply during the current hiring freeze, but keep it on your mind for the future.- At times the focus on the level may not be the most important strategy in the long term. Seek out local critique before you approach people above you. I am currently going to school which should help the moves to a better position. But they don't have the same visibility that your manager has in your specific org. Perhaps someone can explain to me how you get successfully promoted without your boss's support. All you have to do is look at the level distribution, there is a large dropoff in positions at 65. They want you to succeed, they want the team to succeed. Related Searches:All Senior Director Salaries|All Microsoft Salaries. "a HR manager" is acceptable if HR is meant to convey a spoken "a human resources manager" rather than a spoken "an aich arr manager".haven't should have an apostrophe, yes. According to Glassdoor, senior software engineers at Google can earn $172,818 as their average base pay, along with average cash bonuses of $30,921, stock bonuses of $104,769, and some other cash incentives for a total of $201,000. I'm not even thinking about level 63 at this point. No, never: now, going back to that <
> question above: if your boss is answering "No, never" then this is a red-alert moment for you. 1. 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. And having a friend gain less than 3000/yr with a promo to Pricincipal cemented that. Your analysis is very true, specially the part about owning the room and be regarded as the domain expert. These posts are provided "as-is" with no warranties and confer no rights. Harder for L64. Microsoft 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. VP has to find the 10 devs from some other less attractive project. 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. you need to hit the pause button for one big time-out regarding where you are, where you're going, and what needs to change. Success breeds Success: I remember reading an article about an extensive study to determine the best predictor of a stocks price tomorrow. I went from level 62 to level 65 in that time. Isabelle La Fornara - Koutny - Senior Director - LinkedIn If they see flaws you have flaws. For those impatient folks who want to move up every 18 months, watch out. Needless to say that not many will admit this fact. The important thing though is, can you hold things in a room full of other Senior team members. In my group that's the really tough one. Levels 57 and 58 are reserved for non-permanent employees and Levels 59 and 60 are reserved for New Graduates. I heard that promotion budgets are significantly reduced at below 65 level. Just like a lot of folks have a fetish to be managers even when it is against their natures.Having said this, consider which is better: a) Rushing through the levels and to be stuck in 64 for ages (to be Kim'd is especially painful here) - think Sarah Palin orb) Going through the levels at a healthy pace, getting far deep into the salary ranges that will assure higher pay when the new levels come. 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. The biggest lesson I learned here was how to work *with* other teams, even when I thought they weren't very good and even when our purposes didn't align. This will bump you off the fast-track 96% of the time.No matter how bad things are, always be positive, and provide a recommendation for how to address each problem. Microsoft employees make an average base salary of $208k & a total compensation of $280k. Why cannot we have our address title reflect our level as everybody else in the company?Maybe because you are so overleveled (maybe not you personally, but MSN as whole), your bosses doesn't want rest of the company to make ruckus about that injustice (I have seen people moving from SDE II in Windows to MSN and getting promotion-on-transfer to SENIOR SDE, and they were not even hard-core devs). Also, its important to keep in mind that it is impossible to provide a perfect definition of any level. Finally, I think my experience proves that people who may be on theslow track to advancement can turn things around with the right commitment and management. When I finally figured out how to play well with others and was able to show some major cross-group gains in addition to my own leet prod dev skills, that's when I became a 63.63 to 64 was a bit of a slog -- I'd say more like a full-frontal assault on lazy management, actually :). The true professional with loads of potential is left to Sulk. Of course not. 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. You will never get your promotion on a silver platter. The money losing groups hires. Jobs are leveled, not people - make sure the job you have includes the scope needed for the level you want. :). Woow. It is true you can always do that, go to Google, go to ABC, or whatever. Moved to a role where I could see headroom and also where I could set specific commits and accountabilities with the GM, which I then exceeded and moved to L63 in '04. Director can be just principal in sales or marketing. Those teams I used to despise as a L60, and only tolerate as a 63? I spend a long time a 61 about 4.5 years mostly because I changed groups alot. Only one can emerge, and not everyone can be a senior simultaneously. Dont compete with them. I moved around 3 teams before I found one where I really enjoyed the technology and the people, and here I've flourished.So forget all the whining about politics and crap. I can vouch for the efficacy of this mantra.MS definitely does a good enough job on career progression and offering diverse options. .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. Then follow Mini's advice and you should be all set. James Chelliah - APAC Head of Finance | Executive Director - LinkedIn great post. 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. But anyway, EOF for that angle. If you send a brownbag invitation to your VP level group then you know your VP is getting it. "Shock and awe awaits" is correct. The scope and situations have become more and more challenging over time. The Job titles for this position are: Following is the complete list of Job levels at Microsoft: The highest job title in technical track in Microsoft is "Technical Fellow". 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. I came in at L61 2+ years ago. The people around you can help with that. Mini-Microsoft, Mini-Microsoft, lean-and-mean! 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". The soft skills definitely matter. If you're off-path, you can turn it around. All of my peers are SDE II's, so L61-L62.The advice is simple:First, NAIL the fundamentals. In this testing times what will motivate the mgr to put you ahead of him/hers? Director can be applied to L65 or L66. No one else was as good. Look closely, and you'll probably find that this person is working symbiotically with someone else who masters those skills while lacking others.YES, there are people who've been promoted because they've simply "been there" for a long time. my recommendation is you take the offer if you've gone this far. We definitely need a new thread, things are starting to happen indeed.Our 120+ person org has just been broken up due to lack of budget. But that's kind of the point -- simplify your approach. I'm not looking for any off-topic comments let alone woe-be-me comments - remember that slap thing? Furthermore, after reaching a plateua in order to get to the next level of development there is usually a dip in the current performance as the learner starts temporarily letting go of some of the skills they have mastered in order to experiment and try new things. Like any organization MS has its own unique culture and cannot possibly be all things for all people. 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!) Let's connect and I will happily share more about my background and accomplishment and how I can contribute to the success of your organization. You don't get your money by snatching it out of Google or Apple's hands, you get it by convincing your customers to hand it to you.Do you want to know why Vista is such an unmitigated disaster? It is possible to get promoted out of a desire to be promoted. I haven't talked to anyone internally that has anything good to say about it. -- Business Transformation Executive with demonstrated experience in managing and implementing large transformation programs through all levels of the organization in order to build growth, grab new market opportunities or reduce costs.<br><br>- Building on Solid experience in Functional roles (Sales, Marketing, Delivery Operations) to drive those programs <br>- Sales Oriented Business . My management tells me that this is normal and 2 years is "aggressive", but this is getting frustrating for me. Amazon The Goldstars have already been canceled for this quarter.Next, I believe this post will most likely be useful for those who entered MS as intern/college hires. All the money making groups cut 10% of the work force. Discussion: First off, I'm going to be hard-core about comments here. Both job switches came from conversations I had with former co-workers or former directors. Think about why they're able to do that.These two lines really serve to summarize the incoherent blithering that was jcr's post. Microsoft Director level role - Blind Now read over your answer. What is the average promotion velocity for non-technical fields? I will mis-direct and confuse you with hearsay. If you're not an Absolutely! Your boss should already have about a year-long plan about who on the team is getting promoted when - it's essential for team promotion budget planning. One of my august colleges uses the analogy of a trapeze artist. I'm hiring 6 good MSFT developer/consultants. 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. One of my reports and I had that conversation not that long ago, and I explained to him that at 62, he can take on any task I'm asking him to do. Salesmanship is extremely important. Unless you plan to stay in the same org the rest of the time at MS. (Senior Project Manager), with 63 (Senior Project Manager) level earning average salary of $247k along with $38k worth of stock options. There's this sort of nebulous "first you have to perform at level current+1 for a year, then you'll get promoted. Fourth, repeat ad infinitum. Don't obsess over what is in front of you. 3. But if your manager is undervaluing your work, and *that* is the factor that is making you unhappy, you can fix that. About Top-performing Senior Director in Digital Strategy & Commercial Development, with 25 years success in top-tier business across new Tech, data and digital in many sectors driving strategy,. And the place where MS has the most non-contributing overheads is Redmond. Given all that, the two things that are key to promotion are:1) Your relationship with your skip level manager. Technical excellence alone will not generate success.Authority. Think about it. I've been 3.5 years at 62 and re-orged every year in mobile.Any ideas on how to carry greats results of one role into another through a re-org. Andy Winskill - Digital Transformation | Senior Director - LinkedIn To know the real title you have to use headtrax and look for the Standard Title of the position. I was in a group that was reorging constantly and there were frequent management changes, so it took all of the political skill I'd developed over the years to focus my GM on giving me that fucking promotion. But that will only be one more indicator that you are not ready to "face" your obstacles. What advice do you need? What is our competition doing? I dont know why this is the case. 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. 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. Up or out as they say.I found a niche I was happy in. at Salman Riaz - Associate Director - S&P Global Market - LinkedIn 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. In my org the cut is 70% on promos. They will have thought this out. After that I got 3 levels in 3 years and now at level 64. Did you triangulate the feedback? But my manager is communicating to me that it is very hard and I am likely to show patience for another year or two.I do not know how to confirm this without looking like whining. Is there much motivation to really fix Vista's perception problems?Machiavelli might note that intentionally leaving Vista's reputation in the toilet will make Windows 7 look all that much better when it comes out - allowing some of our VP's pride, ego's and bank balances to swell to truly epic proportions. Establish SD/VSTF branching steering committee and send out monthly report. I'd like to hear some more experiences from MCS. Great Post! Next, advertise your new branching strategy in your peer groups. Here is my question, I don't trust that my manager will fight for me to get me to 63 for the following reasons:- The area I own is not big enough for a 63 but at the same time there is not other areas he can give to me given where we are as a team without taking away from my peers, something he would not want to do unless there is a big problem with a peer not delivering which is not the case.- Innovation - this leaves me with trying to come up with other areas that the team can focus on in addition to current goals to leap frog us and which I can own; so far even though some of my ideas are really good (according to the mgr) the timing is off (ie the team has not reached that level yet where my ideas would be practical to implement given the big ROI)In short I can't trust that this mgr will get me to 63 in a time frame that I would like to see it happen (provided that I nail the qualities you highlight for a 63) which leaves me with the following choices:-Sticking around and continue working on displaying 63 qualities until the above points change, and who knows how long that will take- leave for another team internally (which means a bit of time to establish myself again etc) but at the same it would give me more clear timeline of when I can say I am 100% delivering as a 63.-get external offers (eg from Google), bring it up with the mgr and thereby force a change (more responsibility) since leaving would hurt the team in at least the short term. A mentor helps tremendously. There is no better investment at Microsoft for tuning your career. A mistake was a huge cost. I joined The Company 2 weeks ago, far from 63, but all you said it's very valuable for defining a career path. Maybe everybody's aware of being "in lockdown" and keeping their heads down? Biggest key for me was knowing when to leave a bad management situation and team. I am not saying the manager is trying to sabotage, but when push comes to shove will you get the impactful project. Doesn't matter 60 or 65, if you find the key to your boss, next level is in your pocket. Can any reader in Corp Sales Excellence(SMS&P) privide guidance on how to grow from 63 to 64 in that group. Experienced Digital Transformation & creative leader with a strong executive presence, experienced in creating value, building relationships & consensus across board-level client executives that . And as my experience shows, many teams do not even staff a senior. Ultimately, I decided to leave the company. You have to enjoy it, or else it'll come across as insincere, and you'll do a half assed job. Bottom line: Dont be shy of asking for promotions during internal transfers. Your Recently Promoted L63 Peers: let's say you have at least one peer that in the past year or so has been promoted to L63. I have only required two strategies. I'm just going to try and emphasize a few points here:* As mentioned by many folks, it is important to own your career and hence plan you promotion, discuss it with your manager, and most importantly follow up on it. I have staff that are lvl 60 and get paid as much as folks that are lvl 62. VPs may well number in the hundreds at a huge place . Paradigm Shift: In order to achieve the next level of competence to some extent you need to temporarily let go of some of your hard gained skills in order to make the leap and try some new things. Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. 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. the higher you go, the bigger deal this is - at least to where i have gotten.Finally, not everybody will be good in every role.