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LinkedIn is an employment-oriented online service, and since 2017, a subsidiary of Microsoft. It's primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job seekers to post their CVs and employers to post jobs. LinkedIn has 800M+ registered members from over 200 countries.

Promotion Overview

Who NominatesManager
Who ApprovesCommittee
TimeEach Performance Review
FrequencyTwice a year
Promotion Rate
Fast

Promotion Stories


Add your promotion storyGet notified when LinkedIn engineers share their stories about how they navigated up the career ladder.

Promotion Guide


A common reason for good promotion packets to get rejected is due to the candidate "not operating at the next level for a sustained period". Engineers must demonstrate next-level behavior for at least 6 months, and longer for more senior roles.

There’s a separate internal tool for writing promotion documentation (i.e. not CPT or Workday). There is a separate promotion criteria per level.

To write a strong promotion packet, follow these tactics:

  • Describe how you meet each of the requirements for the next level across the career matrix
  • Link evidence in your documentation by pointing to project launches, tech docs, and other artifacts

There are 2 reviewers assigned to read through the promotion packet. They will review without context from the manager first and are responsible for thoroughly looking through all of the artifacts listed in the doc. They come up with their own rating before the calibration meeting. The calibration meeting includes the 2 reviewers, the manager, and the skip-level manager.

To build up visibility around your work to generate better artifacts, follow the in-depth explainer here: "How can I get my work better recognized by leadership?"


Here are the approvals required for promotions:

  • L3 -> L4 (SWE to Senior): Skip-level (senior engineering manager)
  • L4+ (Senior to Staff+): Director/VP

There is a limit at an organizational level (director scope) around promotions, but there's no limit within an individual team.

Anything look wrong?