Promo Season: Dates & Tactics

Tactics for every part of promo season so you can get that W

BowTied Fullstack

Apr 17, 2023

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If you're not intimately familiar with what a "promo packet" or "promo panel" is, then you're in luck… because today, we open the kimono so you can understand how promotions really work in big tech.

Why rush getting promo’d?

Promotions at big tech companies run on a regular cycle, usually every 6 or 12 months.

This means if you aren't preparing now and miss getting put up for promo, you could be stuck waiting another 6-12 months before you can try again.

6-12 months is a long time, anon.

That's 6-12 months of missed delta comp (the difference between pay at your current and next level). This is material when a promo could give a 15-70% annualized total comp increase!

Do you follow BowTied Bull’s advice and avoid inflating your lifestyle after each promo? See if you can spot the difference below.

Then you know that this “delta” could equate to an extra couple years of missed savings. That pushes back when you can retire by years. No good. (See this post for a more in depth explanation.)

Each year that you drag out getting to Step 1 with quick promos compounds negatively to years of extra work required before you can retire.

Fail to plan your next promo? Then you plan to fail.

Instead, keep reading and you'll see what a default aggressive plan to getting promo’d could look like for you.

Let’s get into it.

Terms and Conditions

But first, there’s a couple terms we'll get out of the way briefly, as they will be touched on more later:

Promo: short for promotion
Comp: short for compensation
Promo Packet: A 5-10 page document which is the written argument for why you should be promoted. It tends to include sections like: summary (pros, cons), eductation and industry experience, evidence for each criteria in the eng level ladder, peer feedback, misc additional contributions.
Promo Panel: a review meeting of your packet and promotion by 4 engineer peers of your target level or higher. Their decision to promote (or not) is almost always respected by the rest of the chain of command. I've never heard of higher ups exercising a veto on a candidate that the panel approved.
Hype doc: A document you curate which is a log of your work categorized to the eng level criteria. An up-to-date hype doc makes linking evidence in your promo packet much easier than trying to remember and hunt for Slack or Google Doc links come promo packet writing time.
Glue work: non-technical work which helps the project, team, and company function smoothly, but is rarely seen as convincingly promotable work. Examples include: editing documentation, code cleanup refactors, in-depth internal customer support, contributing to technical working groups, planning offsite events or team dinners.
Default aggressive, good, extreme ownership: Go get you some Jocko and stop making excuses.

And here’s some conditions to keep in mind:

What you're about to read may not be "aligned" with what your manager and HR tells you. But remember that they have no incentive to help you get promoted.

Less promotions = lower labour cost for your employer. So, don’t be surprised that their advice is bad or ineffective. That’s the point, thanks for playing.

As for me, I'm just a cartoon Stack on the internet who DGAF about minimizing your employer’s labour costs. That’s their problem.

I care about people like you getting to Step 1, and breaking free of this iron prison.

So, let’s make that happen.

Know The Promo Season Schedule

Anyone playing or following sports knows the schedule for the season.

Practices, games, rest days, off season training, spring training.

Do you think promo season is any different?

You need to know when to be: