Not useful to OP now, but I really hate companies that do “leading promotions”: promote you to a level without you actually showing, or in this case even understanding what it means. It’s a recipe for broken expectations and very hard for engs. The alternative, “lagging promotion” is where you have a clear idea of the responsibilities and skills you need to develop for the next level, prove that you can do it consistently and get promoted. As a manager, having worked on companies that do one or the other, I really prefer lagging promotions: it’s so much better for engs and managers as well, because it prepares you to grow and it naturally encourages support and guidance.
I have been given “leading” promotions and I have grown into the roles. It took a little time to figure it out though. Problem is that often your own leadership doesn’t give you any training or mentorship about what’s expected from the role.
I think the whole field would be well advised to do more mentorship. It seems most of tech works with a “sink or swim” mentality. This works well for the development work but once you get into leadership a lot of people fail. Not because they are not capable but because nobody helps them understand their new role.
