senior director microsoft level senior director microsoft level

great post mini. Folks, Im really encouraged by this post and the focus on trying to help make others great. I drove my 59-62 agenda with an iron fist and it didn't matter so much that I didn't play well with others or work to help other teams who were struggling.I became a manager during that time and had a year of major hiccups while trying to break through to 63 -- all of a sudden the fact that I was a unilateral force was working *against* me and not for me. HTH. the answer is simple - take on more. 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 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. Thus promotions are easy to L62 - if you don't make 62 quickly, there is something wrong. Andy Winskill - Digital Transformation | Senior Director - LinkedIn I'm at 62, have been for lo, these many years. Key member of the senior management team contributing to the formulation of the company's future direction and supporting tactical initiatives Drive the annual budget process, monthly. Microsoft, Go to company page The second was threat (I have a serious offer outside the company that I am taking). 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. In general, people are not leveled, jobs are. If you're a manager, what's your L63 promotion philosophy? 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. Here's how to find it. I left eight years after that when I realized that L66 wasn't going to happen for me.The bottom line: If your boss isn't pushing for you, get them on your side or leave the group. Former Employee Director, Level 65 at Microsoft Aug 11, 2009 - Director in Redmond, WA Recommend CEO Approval Business Outlook Pros Microsoft has all the resources necessary to win in the market, and you're surrounded by some of the brightest people in the world. Ritu Sethi - Director- Technology I Outsourcing & Offshoring - ABC Starting to reach out and grab some of what you would be doing with a bigger scope/higher level.An earlier poster said it. Most are management types whose only skill is sucking up. Often this is where a perceived negative attitude or lack of soft skills will hurt you the most.Your immediate boss can often look beyond that to the benefit you bring to the organization - mostly because it also directly benefits him or her. You need to consider how you can compete with the pizza eating 25 year olds that don't have a life and work 80 hours a week. Don't do this point blank and for no apparent reason, but your manager has to be aware that at all times you're working towards your next promo, be aware of your results, be aware of the things you need to do to get there, and make YOU and HIS MANAGER aware of those things. If youre not doing a great job at your current level youre not even going to be considered for the next level. Especially since the days of job title/level transparency.People should not forget that many times, higher levels do not equal higher pay. While I was pleased with the attention, I was also rather upset. Step outside of your comfort zone, own PM, own QA, become great at what you do, and do what you love - and the promo will come. 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. YES, life is unfair.At the end, mastering 'soft skills' will help anyone: even someone at 59. No one else was as good. While managers shouldn't be absolved of the responsibility, we do need to understand that your manager might not be able to help you. (this is never a bad idea anyway) Then, if you are doing as good a job as he, he will want you as a peer in level, if not, then he can help you grow. I haven't seen one single person getting hired below L63 in my group during last year. If you are working at Microsoft, plan well to climb up the job ladder. I know many that purposely work for Microsoft as contractors just for this reason. Maybe." Now it's up to me to do whatever it takes to make *them* great, even if it doesn't benefit my product directly. After that, I was given a team that was in trouble quality wise 6 months before shipping. It's just that the scope is different. If you are in office, you will have lots of experience promoting people up to 62 but after that it's a rare event. Seniority Levels in the Workplace: Types and What They Mean I am a HR manager. Finally I got involved and had a one/one with the employee during which I asked him why do you continually insist on doing Y when your mgr asks you to do X? I nearly fell of my chair when he said because I want to get promoted and I know that to get promoted I need to do Y. I started at 59 and just got promoted to 63 a couple months ago. Also, go mine some of Dr. Brechner's Hard Code columns. Do a search for people in those groups in NYC area and check their status to see who is hiring. Those people are almost all Level 62's with few prospects. 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. 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. Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. The only thing you learn is your bucket, and roughly where in the bucket you fit based on your numbers. Amy Hood. If it doesn't, what could you add to make that work? No manager can bail you out of "bad brand jail" past L625. Entry level (4,718) Associate (1,976) Mid-Senior level (40,085) Your lead. Also, its important to keep in mind that it is impossible to provide a perfect definition of any level. Do a great job and you are likely to revise their expectations for the following cycle. Senior Product and Strategy Director, AI/ML - LinkedIn Judson Althoff. I'm interested in reading your perspective and what advice you'd give to someone new to the company looking at a career path similar to your own. You almost always have to earn it. Ask any old mainframer what it was like to be an IBM customer back in the day. Like many technology companies, Microsoft uses levels to indicate seniority for employees, including engineers. This slighlty contradicts some of the other posts. Promotion budgets of 65 and above has been kept intact.Can somebody from HR confirm this?If true then this post is quite untimely. For some teams - especially those like Office with few departures release-to-release resulting in level compression - that's a rough bunch. First, self criticism to identify weaknesses. for people, who might claim that they do all this and still cant progress.. dude, either you are in wrong group or you have not introspected / taken feedback well or you are missing the whole thing by a mile. Thank you for reviewing my profile. Go and restart in another org and dig through their historical biz and people stability during your informationals. Therefore, our need for people who can collaborate across their own team, across disciplines, across org boundaries is greater than ever before. 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. They have commitments to grow their employees. Ellie Reinker - Senior Director - EcoTech Partners LLC | LinkedIn How do you ensure there is no conflict of interest. Great and timely post - thank you Mini! Additional pay could include bonus, stock, commission, profit sharing or tips. take the time to find a mentor that is a great fit for you and the issue you're working on. But more likely youre displaying the hallmark of a weak performer described in the article of the same name (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/01/18/MN73840.DTL). My management tells me that this is normal and 2 years is "aggressive", but this is getting frustrating for me. Is this a normal situation and should I not be worried?MCS has different pressures regarding levels. In this testing times what will motivate the mgr to put you ahead of him/hers? Without soft skills, you can't make 64 and certainly no chance at 65.I've seen many people transfer into MCS, level up, and then transfer out basically using it as a boost. Seek out local critique before you approach people above you. Own your brand. L68 is partner, or you may see GM. I've achieved level 65 in a field technical role and it wasn't that hard. Calibrations are like a brick wall, even in regard to comments made about you. Rather nice site you've got here. Director can be applied to L65 or L66. Here are the key facts about senior director resumes to help you get the job: The average senior director resume is 776 words long The average senior director resume is 1.7 pages long based on 450 words per page. 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. Sort of like grading on a curve in school. 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.You're never competing with your manager. Will they reach L63? 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 also agree with the requests to have a discussion related to 65+.Anyway, I have seen a very healthy discussion going on here, and most of the thoughts I wanted to share have been mentioned. 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? You might have the Microsoft Senior Career Stage Profile in front of you all marked up and broken into more sections in OneNote, but which ones matter most to your team? 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. Skip-levels will not tolerate people who are not team players.Finally if your manager is new or at your level, the strategy is the same. 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? "Now that the Annual review is approaching"You're probably too late already. They want you to succeed, they want the team to succeed. Great post and comments. It can help you identify blind spots which may be holding you back.7. Then you're on the path to higher levels. Thanks to Mini for the great information. >Real HR managers from Microsoft would have just three [sic]s in a post of that length.I hope HR gets cut. It can be a really discouraging time in your career, but if you can get past it youre headed for another amazing growth curve like the one that got you to level 62! But anyway, EOF for that angle. If a spot is available. On the subject of switching teams: It's completely possible to move up by being really good exactly where you are, in most cases. The reason: there are a number of factors of success that are common at all levels (see #6 and #7 below). 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. Great post! (Summarized: Don't ever let your boss be frightened that you'll make him/her look bad. also work is good only when it leads to results that typically means team's success. Is that a req. Staff Software Engineer, Google Cloud Platforms, Senior Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure, Principal Engineer, Developer Platform Systems, Senior Software Engineer, Mobile (Android), AR. Second, the perspective of a different team helps you generalize about best practices and what works and doesn't work. If he thought you were trouble already, though, telling him you are thinking about leaving is like asking for a ticket out of there.7. Any suggestions on how to focus on this. Some were also not very sexy/fun problem but they were all critical to ship. The Senior Director provides leadership, establishes operational objectives, policies, procedures and works plans and oversee the program to ensure maximum profitability through efficient service delivery, effective client management, and strategic allocation of resources. You should be able to show the path to a goal, especially to collections of people who do not report to you. Senior-level Marketing Executive with experience in the consumer and B2B industry. I think it's safe to say that I "own" the group of people under L63 in my group, but I usually take that as an opportunity for mentorship as opposed to an opportunity to poach someone else's cool project. Microsoft is a Technology Giant and has been the biggest Technology Company in recent years. If you don't have a manager like that or the manager cannot/will not set clear commits/accountabilities - when the freeze lifts, time for you to look at new areas where you can bring something to the table. VPs may well number in the hundreds at a huge place . The person who puts you up for promotion and has promotion conversations with your skip level. This is a great topic! It's a matter of human nature for most people not to want someone else to pass them up. Despite the fact you may be totally right, you can inadvertently be viewed as a negative person.Although your bosses are probably aware of the problems, they might be overwhelmed by the scope of the situation, and start getting annoyed at you for being the person always reminding them about the flaws. Dont compete with them. Don't be afraid to ask your manager some very direct questions.Don't force the issue. :). 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? Great post Mini. But above L62 the talent is intense and that is good. All you have to do is look at the level distribution, there is a large dropoff in positions at 65. There is a comment about reporting to someone who is the same level as you are. agree with positive suggestions here. We had a strategic plan for getting me the visibility with the higher-ups that I needed.My promotion to Level 65 during the last annual review period was clearly the hardest. 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? You have to strive to get the KEY to the boss's heart and brain. YES, there are people who've been promoted due to politics. 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. How accurate is this most likely Total Pay range (base + additional) of $396K-$652K/yr? Let's Hear it for the Boy! Its, actually, quite a short list. Senior Director of Sales NEXT50 2022 - 6 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates I am thrilled to announce that I started a new position as a Senior Director Of sales at Next50.. Please help. 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,. Chairman of the Board, Microsoft Corporation. Sad but true Mini et al addressed this with the descriptions of the distinguishing traits you need to develop and demonstrate. 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. Doesn't matter 60 or 65, if you find the key to your boss, next level is in your pocket. How do you get the right job/work that will make the impact. The L65 guys are expected to influence outcomes, strategy and best practices on their entire VP level groups. Being constantly re-orged is bad. Promotion to 63 happened to me 2 years ago when I helped ship Office 2007. Say that you will understand if your manager thinks you aren't ready. You should NOT be looking to get more money to stay in a job you don't like. Will <> reach Level 63 during their career? I think it's important to be very up-front andto use a clichetransparents with your manager regarding your next steps and prospects for promotion. But if you start when you think you are ready and work with your manager toward the goal, you'll get there. Might as well fire those guys. I just want to grow, and I am aware that it does not translate to a promotion always. I am a [sic] HR manager. Outside of those two situations, I have never asked for a promotion. I think your comments on level 63 were interesting. If you have a good manager he/she will ensure the relevant peers know all about it. Taking the easy escape out like that, you are more likely to get into the same situation at other companies. 3. If youve been at Level 62 longer than about 3 years MS may not be the best fit for you and you should probably be considering other options.kc. weeks to find another position within the company, otherwise they are laid off.Think that's known as a "RIF" not a "layoff" butwhat do I know? Within the comments, I hope to elicit advice that follows up on what I start here, and maybe even contradicts it. How you perform in interview is going to matter on whether you get proper mapping or not. I'm hiring 6 good MSFT developer/consultants. Some of them don't have a very good idea of what a Level 65 does since they have not had much experience with those promotions. The last thing I would ever think about is what my boss thinks of me; I just don't care. Senior->principal->partner are the level bands, 63/64->65/66/67, 68/69/70. "haven't seen nothing yet" is a fairly common construction. 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. I am currently going to school which should help the moves to a better position. 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 . Mini-Microsoft, Mini-Microsoft, lean-and-mean! The higher you go, the longer it takes. If they see flaws you have flaws. SoI'll repeat it again. @No! I have had 3 positions in the past 8 years and best advise i can give is NETWORKING. They don't care who gets the credit, and they fight for good reviews for their people. There are 12 Directors in my sub and over 1000 people all scoping to one day be a Lvl 63reality, most people will leave before they get that far. If you dont know what exactly an L63 is, how are you able to make promotion discussions in the review meetings?Managers become so defensive when asked what we should be doing to advance. 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. Both job switches came from conversations I had with former co-workers or former directors. What are the levels for non eng roles? Same applies if you started your career in Test. If only your manager knows you then it is unlikely (at least on paper) that you will move beyond L62. It's because you were playing catch-up to Apple, and playing Machiavellian games with the media companies instead of working on the issues that your customers were complaining about.When will MS learn this lesson? I'm currently level 66 and started at level 59 (equivalent in old levels) 12 years ago. No matter how good you are, you will peak at some point and Microsoft will get rid of you. In my co-workers case, they overloaded him with work and then documented anything that fell through the cracks until they had enough to get rid of him.I'm sure HR throttles managers when this is going on. And as my experience shows, many teams do not even staff a senior. Things get thrown your way and you knock each and everyone of the challenges out of the park. Kudos to you for posting it. James Chelliah - APAC Head of Finance | Executive Director - LinkedIn 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. You will make your management look good and the levels will come. Going from Level 62 to Level 63 is more about EQ than IQ. This topic didn't elicit nearly as many comments as I would have expected. Results-focused: they are focused on getting great results and don't entwine their ego to particular solutions. But power plays are at work and I get smacked when I try and take on extra work. L62 is supposed is own the room of L60s, L65 own the room of L63s, and so on. YES, there are people who are awful at all three and still succeed. Its performance is compromised by your pandering to the RIAA and MPAA. 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. Visiting Assistant Professor of Phyiscs in Notre Dame, IN for Saint How do you get the right job/work that will make the impact. Joined MCS at level 60 and was immediately told that L61 would be years away. sheesh, "We definitely need a new thread, things are starting to happen indeed. So dont try to be joker just to get attention.Now of course, this is all just the theory. You'd do well to read it again:Success in business comes from serving your customers, not about beating your competition. I /like/ OneCare. As for my own history, successful strategies have followed 3 major buckets:From 59 --> 62 (I started as a 10 in the old system) I simply kicked ass and took no prisoners. If you think of it as "How can I do better than my manager?" 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. ceo/vp/director/manager/lead etc. 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. 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. Why cannot we have our address title reflect our level as everybody else in the company? Ready? Jobs are leveled, not people - make sure the job you have includes the scope needed for the level you want. B.Sc in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, M.Sc in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Designing and implementing Software and Hardware Systems, Benchmarking and validating Software and Hardware Systems, Developing innovative solutions and publish papers and patents, Managing teams and keep track of progress, Predicting market trends, identifying market risks, Identifying future opportunities, preparing company roadmap. PDG Tebo Terrence O. Richards Sr. PMJF, HKF, LCIP DBM,MScISM - LinkedIn Strong operations professional with a Master's Degree focused in Project Management from Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto . 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. Flip on the klaxons! Let's slim down Microsoft into a lean, mean, efficient customer pleasing profit making machine! When it comes to where you actually rank and what you get paid that part is all that matters. Averages based on self-reported salaries. A Principal-level employee at Microsoft is someone who drives strategic efforts in their area of expertise. It's also a well-known fact that there is a disparity in levels between Office and now Sinofsky's Windows and the rest of the company, especially below 65 level.Can anyone elaborate on that? That's not going to change in six months (which I learned). What an achievement! 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. Senior finance leader with several years of experience as a member of executive teams within large Australian blue chip and global multi-national companies with broad and diverse background and wide-ranging experience. 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. Will there be room on your team? All of us have been asked to move to India by our parent company. Any idea on when is this going to change? EQ/IQ and Collaboration. You forgot "never ask for a promotion".Forgive my cluelessness, but: Why not?MSS. You can switch jobs internally and get leveled up (typically 6-12 months after) - but make sure you have the conversation with the manager as to what is the expected level and what is the cap. It's really not that complicated. * Leaving the company - oh, the all too easy escape: I have seen that mentioned in quite a few comments. Don't let HR lie to you, this is a stack rank exercise. 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.