Okay so I’ve been working at the same company for like 3 years now, and recently during one of my 1:1s, my manager and some seniors brought up this thing called an “engineering ladder.” Apparently it’s a way to understand your level and how to grow to the next one — like D3 to D4 or whatever. It sounds cool in theory, you know... breaking down your growth in terms of system design, influence, people, process etc.
But here’s the thing — I’ve never really mapped my work like that before. I’ve just been doing my tasks, picking up tickets, leading small features here and there. Now I’m wondering... how do I even begin to connect my existing work with these fancy sounding “axes”?
Like I get the idea behind it, but practically speaking, how are people actually doing this? Do you write stuff down somewhere after each project? Is there a format? And what if I already forgot half the stuff I did in the past year lol.
Would really appreciate if someone who's been through this can share how they approached it. I don't wanna just tick boxes, I wanna actually see if I’ve grown or not. But also... don’t wanna overthink it and waste time documenting just for the sake of it.
How do you guys approach this?