63's and 64's own a huge piece of getting the RIGHT work done CORRECTLY. Some were also not very sexy/fun problem but they were all critical to ship. That is, its hard to define, but I know it when I see it. When you take on the toughest problems that risk the product and make that problem go away, they are happy. Chris Capossela. Somebody help me out here. Your response is private Was this worth your time? 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. There may be multiple reasons for pay differences - one of which is a small number of salaries submitted per job. With wide-eyed wonder he asked WHAT? I said whatever the @#$% your manager most needs you to do!6. I myself am a L62 on the cusp of a midyear promo after 18 months. (1) Oh, please. I'm an SDE, so a large part of my time in the product cycle is spent fixing bugs. You are employed by Microsoft's shareholders. So I guess I know what it takes go get to level 63. >Apple's about to ship Snow Leopard with no new features. You forgot "never ask for a promotion".The one other thing that helped me go from L59 through >L64 was an absolute dedication to the strongest leaders, one level at a time. Jobs are leveled, not people - make sure the job you have includes the scope needed for the level you want. This is a discussion to foster debate and by no means an enactment of policy-violation. So I cultivate relationships with my manager's peers; their support helps tremendously. I want to share some of my thoughts about succeeding at Microsoft and reaching Level 63, the Senior contributor level at Microsoft. If youre not doing a great job at your current level youre not even going to be considered for the next level. Learn everything I can about the technology (I'm a PM and don't have a CS background so I work extra hard at this and ask lots of questions.)2. He/she and you should know exactly what you need to do to get to the next level. Only 1 of the 4 [sic]s were legitimate. For me, it will take some serious job switching to get there. When does that year start? You forgot "never ask for a promotion".Forgive my cluelessness, but: Why not?MSS. Boeing, Go to company page Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. When I was an IC, it was tough technical problems or simply critical problems that no one else wanted. About 1/2 the team is staying, the other half is going to a number of different teams within the larger org. You try that in subs (who actually generate the revenue, HQ typically dont) - but the question is - do they dare push such a thing in the US? Finally, take heart and dont become too discouraged if this is taking a little longer than it seems like it should. These turtles gets promoted eventually just based on time spent at MS and because they werent doing anything wrong even though they dont really meet CSP criteria. Of course everyone wants to be promoted every review, so don't bother asking right after your last promotion.What matters most is that you are doing what your manager thinks deserves to get you promoted. MS is a carrot and stick culture with some heavy emphasis on stick. Executing on what you have now at a high rate/quality level.2. My manager told me a while ago that I was about to get one. In this testing times what will motivate the mgr to put you ahead of him/hers? 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". Thoughts? What got you here ain't gonna get you there. Any idea on when is this going to change? You can each help each other.I've gone from 59 to 65 so far, but maybe what worked for me won't work for you. "Next, I believe this post will most likely be useful for those who entered MS as intern/college hires. It took him at least two months to integrate. RIF in the SQL team? "Ain't seen nothing yet" is a more popular variant of the same due to a song with that title and refrain. IBM got their position by focusing on the customer. How do you make sure you do a good job but not too good of a job.Also higher levels will tend to require you to do things you may not like. 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. I am working towards it would say am there 75% of the way. * Stability at Microsoft is a two-edged sword. Why cannot we have our address title reflect our level as everybody else in the company?Not giving quite as snide a response as the previous posterAsk your management. Why are we doing x and not y? I guess they are fallible humans too. 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? 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. Revise if needed. Normally this is acceptable but right now i smell lawsuit. Specifically, that is a tendency to try and do everything themselves, taking too much individual accountability as opposed to building a v-team across orgs etc etc.Most managers in Microsoft - in my personal experieince - are competent managers. Going from Level 62 to Level 63 is more about EQ than IQ. Also, never ascribe to malfeasance what may simply be due to incompetence. Some related job titles areMarketing Director salaries with median pay of $163,348,Senior Consultant salaries with median pay of $123,519,Senior Product Manager salaries with median pay of $193,845,Managing Director salaries with median pay of $333,006. Over the years, we have acted as a preferred talent acquisition partner to. It's a very rare thing that you'll find a manager who gives you the kind of actionable feedback you need to succeed without doing a whole lot of sleuthing and groundwork of your own to fill in the blanks. Heck, we would be lucky if many can do even that well. This is hard for your manager -- he probably doesn't have a clear idea of what it will take to make the case. The second was threat (I have a serious offer outside the company that I am taking). >> You forgot "never ask for a promotion".That's the absolute worst advice one can give to a Microsoft employee, IMO. I was always righteously indignant when I encountered asshats and incompetence and I would rail against the losers to anyone who would listen, and then I would do whatever it took to drive my agenda through to completion.I focused 100% on producing vast quantities of superior quality work -- which endeared me to my management chain and opened up a crap-ton of doors at those early levels. Isn't morale over the holidays going to be just wonderful? L8=Partner/GM. A past co-worker of mine had the same thing done to him and now there are two devs doing what he did by himself.I guess Microsoft has its reasons. I have also always looked for those problems (opportunities). Don't just take a L63+ role because of the level. sheesh, "We definitely need a new thread, things are starting to happen indeed. Levels 57 and 58 are reserved for non-permanent employees and Levels 59 and 60 are reserved for New Graduates. But the people in the team are below 65. A mentor helps tremendously. Get a free, personalized salary estimate based on today's job market. 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. 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. Repeat. One, we bill customers higher for higher levels and we call everyone 'highly experienced' or even an 'architect'. The first was the barter (a position exists that I qualify for - give it to me now and I will commit to staying with the team another year. My experience is a constant melee of *every* single person trying to influence cross-group. Then they start pinging the manager on why and putting pressure on them to do something, move them up or out. In the beginning, I volunteered for these tough areas that no one else wanted and over time, my brand became the fix it guy. "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. If your boss isn't banging his fist on the table for you, it won't happen. 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. I work in MSN and we still have no way to know the levels of our peers. Here's some advice from a recent L64'er (L63 last year). I came in at 58 (9) and having been through a) I wish I had gone through b). If you can learn to do this you become incredibly valuable.5. We discussed progress at least once a month. And we have the budget for it. If you're not an Absolutely! 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. I knew it backwards and forwards, better than anyone else does now or ever will. This is certainly the course that I took. Owning big features, knowledge about code base, ability to help your peers - irrelevant. I spent 5 years on level 61. That clarity may not always result in a promotion on the exact timeline you envision but if you're honest with yourself and have a good manager it really helps.I'm a 13 year Microsoft employee who lived through the bad old days of crappy managers. The conclusion: its price today! 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.. Will a L63 have direct reports and/or manage v-? Like any organization MS has its own unique culture and cannot possibly be all things for all people. I'm a level 62 dev trying to get to 63. Second, the perspective of a different team helps you generalize about best practices and what works and doesn't work. They know that if the team does well, they will do fine.5. 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. Former is work of many years and long nights and proven track record while later is basically your ability to bullshit through 6 interviews. The L64 guys should be able to influence their skip level orgs plus one or two groups outside of the skip org. >> Grammar nitpicking is fine when it's accurate.Wow, those sic[s] really are all [sic]s, and you went out of your way to refute them with invalid proofs and an assumed air of infallibility.Obviously you are a manager of HR managers soon to be promoted to GM. Thankfully, those are relatively uncommon. This is the multiplier effect, or scope of influence that is often mentioned. Microsoft Compensation Software Engineer $ 80K $ 225K Average Compensation: $101,338 Senior Cloud Software Engineer $ 90K $ 175K Average Compensation: $128,000 Principal Software Engineer $ 90K. There certainly doesn't seem to be any shortage of people wanting in. . Find the right team and manager.2. When you see a bozo who is L65 it is highly likely that he had joined MS recently at L64-L65 directly.Here's biggest difference in expectations between levels: The L62 guys are supposed to be able to lead their feature and perhaps influence couple of related features by spreading their best practices. Show me you can do this and want to learn more and you'll be on my radar as a possibility.6. Duuuude, your boss is the way to your promotion. What to do?The remaining is either a) absorb into other org (say A)b) if A doesn't need testers, then VP will instruct them to find another position in 6 weeks. 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. Once you identify those things scream about it by sending email with problem and solution and offer leadership to eliminate that imperfection. This is usually how teams start to rot from the inside. New Senior Director Human Resources jobs added daily. 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. We are all flawed, and you are lucky if people are telling you something that you can do something about. You have to strive to get the KEY to the boss's heart and brain. You are now 20% closer to promotion just by a day of work :). Steven A. Ballmer Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation. Experienced Operations & Project Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. As for asking for promotions, I disagree that you must always be asking. Got lucky on that one!!!! I'd like to hear some more experiences from MCS. Levels 57 and 58 are reserved for non-permanent employees and Levels 59 and 60 are reserved for New Graduates. The skip level is totally nonchalant to her ways. In spite of it, I've been promoted 8 times in 12 years. 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. Don't make promises to follow up on things and then let them drop. Add your salary anonymously in less than 60 seconds and continue exploring all the data. I've been a 62 for too long by Microsoft standards. Therefore, you are an HR manager. 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. Apple should in no way be throwing stones at Microsoft in this regard. Pull the ripcord. Can we talk about the recent hiring of a new OSG head, as well as ideas on how to fix online? Continuously revisit those and discuss with your manager. Today's top 83,000+ Senior Director jobs in United States. A Principal-level employee at Microsoft is someone who drives strategic efforts in their area of expertise. Starting to reach out and grab some of what you would be doing with a bigger scope/higher level.An earlier poster said it. Not so at L63. One of the key lessons is to know who is the gate keeper for your career. What are other groups doing? Most gravitate to safe work that's in their comfort zone or work they enjoy. I have known some that do what is barely enough for "achieve" just because it is safe. 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. Understand not just what needs to happen, but WHY. As a member of the Microsoft UK Senior Leadership Team, Olaf leads Microsoft's retail and consumer goods . And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm 99.9% sure what needs to change is you. I was let go from Microsoft recently. Thrive on it! Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. The average salary for a Senior Director is $170,707 per year in United States, which is 65% lower than the average Microsoft salary of $500,742 per year for this job. I dont know why this is the case. I started at 59 and just got promoted to 63 a couple months ago. 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. Taking on the toughest hardest problems does line up well with something everyone has talked about on this post - that is - make your managers look good. Sad but true Mini et al addressed this with the descriptions of the distinguishing traits you need to develop and demonstrate. No, L7 is 66-67. It's a good time to flip back through that. 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. After that, I was given a team that was dysfunctional and the most problematic area of the product - now its the area that customers rave about and the team is running smoothly.The bottom line is that takes (1) very hard work (2) you need to build your skills (3) personality to drive the solution in spite of the process and (4) demand excellence from others - including managing out those that will never deliver quality (some folks are net losses to the team).I always hear the whining from folks that get stuck at level 62/63 but when those tough challenges are out there, they don't volunteer and they certainly don't go looking for the biggest challenges. Because, except on the rare occasion, Microsoft and your team isn't going to change.But, Mini, isn't your 'raison d'etre' just the opposite? I breezed to L63 and shortly after to L64 within a year. Could be principal engineer, principal engineering manager, could even be director depending on the org. Director of Business Development for ATALIAN Global Services, in a senior leadership role based in Singapore driving sustainable growth in Asia. I am a troll. Proficient in product delivery, business & cost transformation, supplier management, client relationships and growth opportunities Working extensively at senior board level to deliver high value . So if you want a promotion and don't get it: drop everything you are doing now and start working on your promotion, i.e. It varies greatly from manager to skip.The hardest point for me to bear is that I am young, capable of doing so much more, and absolutely dying to do more. Learning Curves and Disillusioned Learners: psychologists have known for years that skill acquisition tends to follow a typical learning curve. This is something that should happen on an ongoing basis.Unfortunately, it doesnt happen, and that is what frustrates a lot of people.Saying that you dont know what exactly an L63 is, but will know one when you see him is a big cop-out. Nothing you do is good, all you get is criticism. The funding for our project stopped and our vendor team of 28 people have been asked to leave immediately. I'm a level 66 dev (architect). Promotion budgets of 65 and above has been kept intact.Promotion and raise budgets are going to be quite tight everywhere, not just at MS. I want them productive and about career success at Microsoft, especially your thoughts about achieving L63. Establish SD/VSTF branching steering committee and send out monthly report. Microsoft, Go to company page Most Directors are 63 and the occasional 64. Same here. You might be too smart or have ideas that come from somewhere outside of Redmond which makes you very dangerous and not Microsoft material. Benefits can add thousands of dollars to your offer. Youre hanging onto the bar swing back and forth feeling pretty secure. This 360 review is confidential and you dont have to share it with your mgr unless you chose to do so. I was an asshole, but I was better than my peers at getting shit done -- I was a PM in DevDiv at the time. Our entire unit was let go but we were moved to different groups in the org. You will not know the difference. Hired at L58 in 2000 - Currently L62 and the last 2 promos were at 18mo intervals. then the follow-up is: after what accomplishments and around when? 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. I've seen L65's who can't own a cardboard box, let alone a room. I give you the example from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/awaits "A busy day awaits" as evidence.So one legitimate missing punctuation mark, one matter of verbal interpretation, one popular idiom, and one completely correct phrase. i asked him if he knew the absolute most important thing for him to do to get promoted. It is a dream company for many people. But if you can collaborate with others you can help accomplish much more than youll ever be able to accomplish individually. Risk and return are related. Think about why they're able to do that.These two lines really serve to summarize the incoherent blithering that was jcr's post. Think of the guy in the other company, the guy who is building something that competes with you, with your team. It is my observation that the most common place we see disillusioned learners in the product groups at MS is at level 62. Sorry for going dark for so long. I have staff that are lvl 60 and get paid as much as folks that are lvl 62. That's the easy way out. 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? 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. 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. Anyone know how to handle constant Re-orgs. He said this year he could only make strategic promotions, which sounded like promotions of people above 65. 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. No matter how good you are, you will peak at some point and Microsoft will get rid of you. Will a team that needs exactly the skills and interests that you have pass on you because of some HR guideline? If I was 65/66 material, why did they wait until I gave notice to offer me the promotion? It's a matter of human nature for most people not to want someone else to pass them up. Does anyone know what the typical salary increase, measured in percentage, is for going from 62 to 63? Mar 26, 2018 2 YES, there are people who've been promoted due to politics. Feel free to . 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). Let's apply that stick to cronyism and punishment based management practicies. Few others are long time softies who have been doing average to good job for very long time (3-7 years) without getting any promos. :)Then, over the next 2 years, I learned the magic of 65: it's not just about playing *well* with others, it's about making every team you work with great and helping them do their best work. Needless to say that not many will admit this fact. This employer has claimed their Employer Profile and is engaged in the Glassdoor community. It's a knife fight to 63. Maybe everybody's aware of being "in lockdown" and keeping their heads down? From my perspective (L67) here's what you need to nail:1. 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.Vista is still unreliable, unsecurable, and a massive pain in the ass to use on a daily basis. Can any reader in Corp Sales Excellence(SMS&P) privide guidance on how to grow from 63 to 64 in that group.
senior director microsoft level