Promotion Principles
We strive for Dropbox to be a great place for all engineers to grow and be recognized for that growth. The above sections describes expectations for engineers at each of our career levels, and this section describes the principles and guidelines for transitions between those levels.
More important than any document is that you and your manager have regular, active conversations about your short- and long-term career growth and development.
Promotion principles
- No checkbox game: There is no set of checkboxes that you can check off to guarantee a promotion. Promotions are a recognition of the talent development that has enabled you to consistently deliver results at the next level over a sustained period of time.
- Evidence, not faith: Promotions are a recognition of demonstrated, sustained impact at the next level. We don’t promote someone because we hope they can handle it.
- Strengths, weaknesses, and performing “at a level”: To be performing “at a level” means that, most of the time, you are delivering results at that level (the “what”) with the talent mastery, execution, culture, and values expected of that level (the “how”). We recognize and embrace that everyone has technical and non-technical strengths and weaknesses, which affect our ability to deliver results and which we continually work to improve (mastering your craft never ends!). As you move up the levels, it becomes increasingly difficult to deliver that level of results while having significant technical or non-technical weaknesses, though.