Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. 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. Nothing you do is good, all you get is criticism. Being irreplaceble is bad because you spend more times on coding/fixing bugs and there is less time to work on your visibility. 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. This will only lead us to a healthy and balanced distribution of levels across genders. 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. I heard that promotion budgets are significantly reduced at below 65 level. The estimated additional pay is $257,304 per year. Leadership: pro-active leadership that convinces team members of the future direction and even helps to . 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. Then perhaps you're stuck at L62. the answer is simple - take on more. There are not a lot of options at that point. The microsoft people have already decided you're not a good 'fit'. Your Team: you have to be able to understand why the L63s and L64s are where they are. 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. 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. Here is a nice place to start :-)http://guestgame.com/. Some can even challenge you and give you the tough love and direction you need. 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. The point here is that I have more than once seen folks that were very talented and super stars get bumped for someone less talented but more vocal. When you take on the toughest problems that risk the product and make that problem go away, they are happy. It's a question your boss gets asked so it's not a surprise to them. No, L7 is 66-67. Browse all Microsoft Software Engineering Manager salaries Frequently asked questions Mini-Microsoft, Mini-Microsoft, lean-and-mean! I don't yet have any insight into what it might take to become a Partner, so I won't comment on that. When it comes to where you actually rank and what you get paid that part is all that matters. Senior-level Marketing Executive with experience in the consumer and B2B industry. 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>I am a partner. That manager was (in my and many others' opinions) an incompetent, non-technical "manager" who was incapable of recognizing people's talent and contributions. Well, what about everyone else? "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. Microsoft Corp. engages in the development and support of software, services, devices, and solutions. Just pick one Job id, prepare for it and then go for internal. How do you get the right job/work that will make the impact. Satya Nadella. Incompetent people tend to significantly overstate their performance, and significantly understate that of their co-workers. I call B.S. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users. Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. When it comes to where you actually rank and what you get paid that part is all that matters. Do not accept promises, or you will be already disappointed with your new team as soon as some promises dont materialize (and believe me: you will lose your patience long before some promises materialize). I saw several far more technically skilled people in the group who deserved this that were passed over. 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. Pop quiz: who is it? I am a troll. It's usually too late at that point. Yes, "soft skills" count. Seriously, your GM or VP owns the decision to do transparent titling. I work in MSN and we still have no way to know the levels of our peers. If I'm going to be late delivering something, give folks advance notice.3. I know to a certain degree that's all of us - but, if you're dealing with 2-3 a year or every other year then you need to get out. Ready? Ultimately humans make decisions either by heart or brain. I like such themes and everything that is connected to them. New shiny brain up and working now. It's a lot better than folks being ambivalent about your success or failure, right? I haven't talked to anyone internally that has anything good to say about it. Join the Levels.fyi community to chat with employees at Microsoft and other tech companies. And your manager will not hate you for thinking about switching -- if you are a great employee to begin with, he will just want to keep you around. The skills are different, and part of the failure of this company is exactly due to losing star individual contributors that become mediocre leads, in all disciplines. 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. In this testing times what will motivate the mgr to put you ahead of him/hers? 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. 5. Ah, dude, my boss is in the way of my promotion. L66 would be Principal or Sr Director. This is a problem, at least up to level 65. Write it down in a team-culture career section you keep in OneNote (start that section now if you don't have it). Here's some advice from a recent L64'er (L63 last year). 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. And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm 99.9% sure what needs to change is you. To know the real title you have to use headtrax and look for the Standard Title of the position. I am a troll. I have known some that do what is barely enough for "achieve" just because it is safe. Fourth, repeat ad infinitum. The L64 guys should be able to influence their skip level orgs plus one or two groups outside of the skip org. Expertise in the following areas: Product Marketing Consistently created groundbreaking, customer-focused value . Microsoft's '08 Mistakes: The Software Giant's Three Errors http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/121908-microsofts-08-mistakes-the-software.html?hpg1=bnJust three? Great post. Hired at L58 in 2000 - Currently L62 and the last 2 promos were at 18mo intervals. This means there are 24 distinct job levels at Microsoft. You can wait 24 months to gain all the credibilty & visibilty & trust again that needs to intersect precisely with your new leaderships ability to argue you on the stack proficiently. Microsoft Director level role - Level 66 - what should I expect from COMP sideYOE-15Current TC- 235k, Go to company page For me, it will take some serious job switching to get there. Happy hunting. Don't be afraid to talk to your skip level manager regularly in such a situation, not to get promoted but because he can better help you grow.4. 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". It's a $1,000-per-minute conversation - you should always have those. So no time like the present to practice where you can. I started in 2001 @ L62. HTH. 3. Thanks for starting this. This is a good list. "Sad but true. I'm an SDE, so a large part of my time in the product cycle is spent fixing bugs. If youre not displaying them at the current level why would your manager expect that youll suddenly start to display them at the next level?2. Eng, Go to company page Be prepared for every possible question, scenario, disaster, etc. Senior Director Levels at Microsoft 63 Senior Manager SDE Lead 64 Principal EM Principal Director of Engineering 65 Show 7 More Levels United States Average Total Compensation $515,638 Base Salary $243,377 Stock Grant (/yr) $194,043 Bonus $78,217 Get Paid, Not Played It appears on 6.3% of resumes. He/she and you should know exactly what you need to do to get to the next level. Why does the company reward and keep these numbskull managers that hold people back? I made it to L63 in a year (I was probably under leveled when I arrived). I've been hearing some stealth layoffs around the SQL and BOSG groups, around 70+ people were given 6(?) Seek out local critique before you approach people above you. But that will only be one more indicator that you are not ready to "face" your obstacles. These guys are typically outcome of recent hiring sprees. When I mastered the above -- and when I had partner teams widely viewed as difficult or bad partners coming to my GM and singing my praises as the go-to guy, *that* is when I became a Principal. At that time, I understood those questions as being just an excuse that the manager used because he or she didnt like something in my skills or personality. As for asking for promotions, I disagree that you must always be asking. . 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. YES, there are people who've been promoted due to politics. They took credit for work done by others (#2 helps).Seriously, they only way to separate the wheat from the chaff in this company is to allow to interview without notifying the manager. Will some new person to the team who shows high growth potential push you aside even though you've been doing really solid work for years?Sometimes I wish it worked like an experience bar in a video game where you can clearly see when you will "ding". It's a knife fight to 63. 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. Of course, it goes without saying that if you dont have any substance you will likely hurt yourself badly and get ignored with vengeance next time. Anyone know how to handle constant Re-orgs. 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. Learning Curves and Disillusioned Learners: psychologists have known for years that skill acquisition tends to follow a typical learning curve. I say this because I have seen really smart people shunned because of 'house-on-fire' attitudes even when they were dead right. You have to be extremely faithful to your management while at the same time carefuly growing your broad influence to your manager's piers. I sat there at L64 for 5+ years. If you read CSPs this is the underlying message more or less. I've been told HR looks for employees that have been at their level too long. This is usually how teams start to rot from the inside. Then they start pinging the manager on why and putting pressure on them to do something, move them up or out. This way I can be in a better position to show that I am a "absolutely!" Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Level 61 - overseas. In MCS, soft skills are often more important than hard skills since you work with customers (often angry ones), sales (often under pressure and looking for someone to blame). It's hard for L63. weeks to find another position within the company, otherwise they are laid off.Anyone know others? Executing on what you have now at a high rate/quality level.2. You may not need them to get from 59->60, but if you're good at them, it'll make your rise much quicker. 3. But if your manager is undervaluing your work, and *that* is the factor that is making you unhappy, you can fix that. Especially since the days of job title/level transparency.People should not forget that many times, higher levels do not equal higher pay. No matter how good you are, you will peak at some point and Microsoft will get rid of you. They had to be given outlandish levels so as to match their previous compensation. 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. 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. But power plays are at work and I get smacked when I try and take on extra work. Candidates with evidence of effective teaching will be given preference. for L63? 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 might be too smart or have ideas that come from somewhere outside of Redmond which makes you very dangerous and not Microsoft material. I'm now past my time that I can recruit away from MSFT after leaving some time ago. Senior level executive excelling at increasing operational efficiencies, improving . Regarding the comment about the ability to own a room - This is a very good self-calibration technique. Levels are a bit easier to achieve in MCS. There certainly doesn't seem to be any shortage of people wanting in. Are all management titles and the name used to call then in different orgs can change. The problem is you can't tell if you've done something to piss him off or if he's doing it because he has to. You will make your management look good and the levels will come. Until you can be honest with yourself (and it's not fun, trust me) you will be stuck doing what you're doing and your complaining will be the glue keeping you there. 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? A) What is the market facing title for L66 and above levels at Microsoft?B) What is the equivalent at Microsoft of Amazon L7?C) Rank the below titles at Microsoft in decreasing order of seniority: e.gPrincipal > Senior Director > Director > Senior Manager > Partner, Go to company page How do you ensure there is no conflict of interest. Risk and return are related. Two years ago I realized that the MS treadmill (trying to become what my dysfunctional manager wanted) was making me nuts. Ugh, not good, not good at all.>Finance is cutting 10% of work force. I am soliciting ideas to reduce cost in this blog. Of course I ensure my manager and skip-level are aware of my contribution as a mentor, but I figure that as long as I'm in front of the wave, the best way for me to advance is to move the wave forward. Both job switches came from conversations I had with former co-workers or former directors. Staff Software Engineer, Google Cloud Platforms, Senior Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure, Principal Engineer, Developer Platform Systems, Senior Software Engineer, Mobile (Android), AR. And don't beleive your boss if they say otherwise. 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. Sorry for going dark for so long. At 63, he has to be the one who tells me what the next thing for the product should be. Is there a way one can dream of getting promoted in this noxious environment which is the oabg? Why are we doing x and not y? You will not know the difference.Steve Steve Steve given the state of the company, are you sure you don't have anything else more urgent to do? The people around you can help with that. "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. You may be one of those who diligently turn over every single rock to look at problems within the org. If you're going into that comfort zone of complaining about politics and butt-kissing and favorites, do me this favor: hold your right palm up, nice and flat like you're about to be sworn in to testify in a trial, and now extend your right arm out nice and wide, and then quickly swing your right arm around the front of you in a nice arc that ends with the flat of your right hand quickly connecting to the left side of your face for a hard, resounding slap. Successful people looooove to expound upon the secret to their success. Microsoft Salary. I can vouch for the efficacy of this mantra.MS definitely does a good enough job on career progression and offering diverse options. Will they reach L63? Vendors are also having it bad. One thing I learned early is that the manager who says "I fought for you, sorry" is really saying "I'm too weak to make the case." 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. senior director - $446k . So most new hires at MS are L63 by default and they obviously don't have to work at it :).Yes, L64->L65 transition is REALLY big deal but directly joining MS at L65 as new FTE is not a big deal and there are usually ample of open positions. Why cannot we have our address title reflect our level as everybody else in the company? In fact, every boss I've had has told me that I was the most frustrating employee they've ever had, mostly because I ignore half the things they ask me to doAnyhow, here's my advice: do a good job.That's it. I used to work in the OneCare team. Own your brand. Great topic. MS is a carrot and stick culture with some heavy emphasis on stick. An accomplished and proven Director / Tech & Business Principal / Programme Manager / Business Partner / Service Delivery Manager with a wide-ranging skillset, experienced in leading teams to success. They can be wrong about exactly what these flaws are, but they aren't wrong that you are flawed. 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. It's not easy. 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. If you are considering leaving your team (or Microsoft) but think you could be persuaded to stay, be careful about how you present this to your manager. . It inspired me to write the following dissertation on the subject in hopes that it will be helpful. 3. And do you anticipate what happened when I made the next move to Dev Manager position? You are now 20% closer to promotion just by a day of work :). It takes a little time to get on your skip-level manager's radar. And as my experience shows, many teams do not even staff a senior. check the ego out, ensure that people around you (the whole team is successful), create the best results possible and your promotion wont be far away. Think about why they're able to do that.-jcr. 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. If you get caught in a review and someone hits a fastball by you and you stumble, the people above you suddenly have fears that you might stumble when they and you are in front of the person who controls their careers. I want to share some of my thoughts about succeeding at Microsoft and reaching Level 63, the Senior contributor level at Microsoft. I'm at 62, have been for lo, these many years. 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. Amy Hood. You're selling it in no less than eight different SKUs, (including the upgrades) and your marketing message is deliberately obfuscated to convince the customers to go for the most expensive one. Woow. The soft skills definitely matter. 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. Thrive on it! Do you know why? But if you think you should be promoted and your manager doesn't, you shouldn't sit and seethe -- you must understand what it will take. on this one. I've seen L65's who can't own a cardboard box, let alone a room.Well you know, don't go for them for advice! I myself am a L62 on the cusp of a midyear promo after 18 months. This is an opportunity to really do great work and innovate - learn to do your best work in the face of adversity and limited budgets and you will most likely to do well. Go and restart in another org and dig through their historical biz and people stability during your informationals. People who get stuck at the plateau are often referred to as disillusioned learners. I'm a Level 64 in Office and I agree that the Level Compression puts a crimp in promotion velocity in Office. 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. Should I trust my manager or is this just one more of his demonstrations of poor management skills? If you go looking for those problems though, you better be prepared to deliver. It sounds trite, but it's true. You have the right stuff to succeed and Microsoft is very happy with you. I want them productive and about career success at Microsoft, especially your thoughts about achieving L63.