How I Was Able to Get Promoted While Constant Reorganization

This engineer went from Mid to Senior while constant changes across the org!

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

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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