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Let’s get back to this week’s thought.

Intro

The only thing we know about the future is that change is inevitable. Every company and every organization will eventually undergo change.

I’ve been through many reorganizations: as an IC, middle manager and as the one who has been in charge of such. And the best thing you can do is to be flexible and adaptable as much as possible.

Embracing it is much better than fight against it. The faster you embrace it, the easier it’s going to be for you to find ways to move forward.

Junaid Effendi have gone through multiple reorganizations in his role and was able to get promoted from Mid to Senior despite many changes across the org.

He embraced the changes and stuck through the plan!

Want to know how? Make sure to read on. He is sharing his plan with us today.

Junaid, over to you.

Reorgs are inevitable

Every engineer experiences multiple reorgs during their career, often triggered by factors such as layoffs, shifts in direction, leadership changes for the betterment of the company in terms of goals, efficiency, etc.

Reorgs can be very detrimental to promotions, which is why I decided to share my experience of how I managed to get promoted despite facing multiple reorgs.

Let’s do an overview of the timeline.

Timeline

I worked with several managers and skip-level managers due to multiple reorgs, which made it challenging to secure a promotion in the first cycle, but I learned from experience and applied the right strategies to succeed in the next one.

Here is the dateless timeline showcasing the sequence of events:

Now let’s go through the whole timeline.

I started as a Mid-Level Engineer and from day one, my goal was to become a Senior Engineer within a year.

I focused on building a strong foundation

After successfully onboarding onto the team, I focused on creating a solid plan to support my yearly review.

Although my manager changed during this time, the transition had minimal impact since my new manager, a team lead, was already familiar with the team’s dynamics.

I collaborated closely with them to ensure I took all the necessary steps for my promotion, including finding the right projects, documenting progress, etc.

I needed to adapt to change

This was when the first reorg happened, and my team transitioned from the Data Science org to the Engineering org, entering a completely different environment.

The good thing was that I had the same manager, same team and responsibilities.

Despite the change, I remained focused on my promotion, working continuously with my manager and delivering successful projects and also wrote a very solid performance review.

Recommended reading: How to write effective performance review by Jordan Cutler.

After not being promoted, I needed to reflect and adapt

The year started with disappointing news: I didn’t receive the promotion I had worked so hard for the previous year.

My manager supported me, acknowledging I deserved it, but circumstances were beyond our control.

I took time to reflect and identify the possible reasons. This is what I found out:

• Impact →The impact I made was limited, mainly due to the projects I worked on were not aligned with the new org goals.

• Visibility → My impact was there but being in the new org for just a few months wasn’t enough for recognition, and my manager didn’t have enough time to build connections with the new leadership.

• Quotas → Impact was visible but I did not make the cut due to too many nominations in the Engineering org.

Along with the news of no promotion, I faced another reorg and was moved to a different team with new responsibilities under a Product org.

It was completely different, with new teammates, new goals, but at least the same manager.

I realized I could seize this opportunity to make a real impact, reevaluate my approach, and avoid similar setbacks in the next promo cycle.

I re-evaluated and developed a new plan

This was a time to restart and learn from past experiences.

I developed a new plan and realized that if I had focused on the following areas, I might have been in a stronger position that is reorg safe.

These were the focus areas:

This is how I focused on increasing impact

Being part of a new team, I took the opportunity to identify and take on high-impact projects. Here’s how I approached it:

• Focused on projects aligned with top company goals.

• Prioritized initiatives with a broad customer and stakeholder base.

• Chose projects with manageable learning curves to deliver results efficiently.

I focused on getting cross-team advocates

Having strong support from leaders across teams is invaluable. I had the opportunity to work with great leaders. Here’s how I leveraged this:

• Built stronger relationships by actively engaging with stakeholders.

• Collaborated with cross-team engineering leaders to identify bigger opportunities to achieve the shared goal.

These efforts ensured that my contributions were recognized and mentioned during their discussions with leadership. This subtle yet strategic visibility helped plant the idea of my impact in leadership’s minds, aiding in decision-making processes.

I understood that without leadership visibility it would be hard to get promoted

Ensuring visibility to top leaders is essential. Here’s how I approached this:

• Aligned my work with leadership goals to demonstrate strategic value.

• Actively participated in tech talks and contributed to the company’s tech blog to increase visibility.

• Collaborated with my manager to highlight my contributions publicly and effectively.

I focused on clear and concise over-communication

Over-communication is effective only when it’s concise and clear. During regular 1:1s with managers/leaders, I ensured the following:

• Reminded them of my goals, including promotion aspirations.

• Highlighted the impact of my work, backed by data.

• Actively sought feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Keeping and consistently updating the brag document helped a lot

Strong documentation significantly enhances your ability to convince others. Here’s what I implemented:

• Consistently documented even the smallest yet impactful details to ensure nothing was overlooked during performance reviews.

• Adopted the “brag document” concept from Gregor, maintaining a detailed list of all wins throughout the year.

• Assisted my manager with comprehensive documentation, recognizing they might not recall every detail. I prepared a solid performance review document and collaborated with my manager to refine it before submission.

While applying the above strategies to make my promotion goal reorg safe, guess what, my manager left, and the team moved back to the Engineering org.

I continued applying the strategies above, with a particular focus on communication → ensuring that leaders were well-informed about my work and current situation.

The whole journey was a process of learning and not to blame anyone (company, leaders or managers).

This can happen to anyone, even myself again in the future.

Hope the lessons can help you to navigate and increase your chances of getting promoted in any circumstances!

Last words

Special thanks to Junaid for sharing his story and lessons with us! Make sure to follow him on LinkedIn and also check out his newsletter, where he regularly shares insights to help engineers grow in their careers.

We are not over yet!

You can find me also on Instagram and threads. I’ll be posting tips on being a great engineering leader (mostly on threads) and also some insights from my day-to-day (Instagram).

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