--- title: "Making a Career" url: "https://books.anedot.com/2/handbook/20/making-a-career" --- # Making a Career ## Your First Year at Anedot Congratulations! You're part of the team! In your first few weeks, you'll get aligned with your manager and team on approach and expectations. You'll get up and running, doing real work. It's our responsibility to give you opportunities to demonstrate your skills and fit for the job. This includes your technical expertise, your engagement with coworkers, and your ability to take feedback and adapt to Anedot culture. Similarly, it's on you to take advantage of opportunities and to show that you're capable of meeting the team standards. When you start, you'll receive an outline of expectations. Those standards will be clear and attainable, and your manager will give you frequent, candid feedback on how you're doing meeting them, as you go. During your first 100 days, we'll schedule a review around 45-day and 100-day marks. On occasion, despite our collective best efforts, it's not a fit. We don't do full-scale performance improvement plans during the first year. So if during that time it starts looking like your long-term employment won't work out, we will let you know early and why. By the time you've reached your 1st anniversary with the company, we expect to be as excited about working with you as we were on day one. Likewise you should consider if you feel the same about having joined the team. When both of those answers are "absolutely yes!", you'll move into a less frequent performance review cycle. Just once a year, around your anniversary of joining the company. Your first year with Anedot should confirm what we learned in the hiring phase — you're well suited for this job, and you're invigorated by the work to be done. Just put in your best effort, make sure you reach out if things aren't feeling right, embrace the feedback you get from your manager and team, and openly share your feedback with them! ## "There is No Ladder" At Anedot, growth doesn't follow a traditional corporate ladder. There really is only one track: learning and personal growth. We value people who are curious, self-directed, and constantly improving at their craft. We invest in people who take ownership of their own development. If you're waiting to be told what to learn next, you're probably not going to thrive here. But if you're the kind of person who seeks out challenges and grows through them, you'll find plenty of room to do exactly that. ## Add Value to Grow at Anedot Everyday we strive to grow together while improving as individuals along the way. The growth opportunities along each pathway look slightly different from team to team, but the idea is the same: there is an opportunity for *everyone* at Anedot to grow. We've created five primary contribution roles (PCRs) to help illustrate growth at Anedot. You'll notice that we expect all roles to have a blend of vision, strategy, planning, and execution. The difference in expectation is the scope. > "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up somewhere else." *— Yogi Berra* | Track | Scope | Vision | Strategy | Planning | Execution | |:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | IC | Individual | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Manager | Unit | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | Director | Team | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | VP | Org | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | CEO | Company | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Note: These career growth tracks describe increasing scope of responsibility. They are distinct from the three operational roles described in our Organizational Philosophy (IC, DRI, Player-Coach) — which describe how people work day-to-day. Most people occupy both a growth track and one or more operational roles simultaneously. For more on how DRIs and player-coaches work in practice, see the Organizational Philosophy section in How We Work. ## Compensation Philosophy At Anedot, **Titles** ≠ **Progression** ≠ **Increased Compensation**. Increasing Value = Increasing Compensation. ### How We Determine Pay Progression is based on value-add. We believe in compensating team members fairly based on the value they bring to the organization, not simply based on title or tenure. Compensation reviews happen continuously through our Radical Honesty approach. Rather than waiting for annual reviews, managers are empowered to recognize exceptional performance and advocate for compensation adjustments as team members demonstrate increased value. ### Equity and Fairness We strive to maintain internal equity while also recognizing individual contributions. Compensation decisions take into account: - The scope and complexity of the role - Individual performance and impact - Market rates for similar positions - Budget constraints and company performance ## Radical Honesty At Anedot, we believe in Radical Honesty and open, continuous feedback **at all levels of the company**. That's why we operate with an Open Door and avoid "red tape". We're not about annual performance reviews—if we're waiting to address something, then it's probably too late. - Exceptional performance should be recognized and celebrated when it happens, as it happens - Poor performance should be addressed in-the-moment with appropriate coaching that focuses on team member development Radical honesty means saying the hard thing with respect, not avoiding it to be polite. It builds trust faster than anything else we've found. ## Embracing Change We're a professional team and because of that we understand that the needs of the team are going to change. There are a number of departments at Anedot. Sometimes a team member may wish to change roles and we do our best to support these opportunities, but it's all based on company need. *"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."* – John F. Kennedy ## Mastery & Titles Advancing your career at Anedot doesn't mean giving up on your craft. No matter your role, you can become better at the work itself and level up that way. This is especially important since we're a relatively small company with minimal layers of management. Within each of our job functions, we've mapped our trajectory of mastery to five different levels. That title structure is shared amongst all departments, but the particulars of what characterizes one level from another will of course be different. Note: not all departments hire Junior or Mid-level roles. - Junior (L1) - Mid-level (L2) - Senior (L3) - Lead (L4) - Principal (L5) Mastery and internal leveling are assessed and determined during hiring. If you're hired at a level below Senior, you should work towards developing Senior level skills. Juniors should achieve Senior in 4 years (2 to Mid-level, 2 to Senior), and Mid-level contributors should achieve Senior in 2 years. When everyone is able to follow that trajectory, we create healthy, high-performing teams where everyone can trust each other to run at similar speeds. When people aren't able to level up within the above timeframes, after ample opportunities to do so, we usually determine that to be a bad long-term fit and we'll decide to part ways. Once you reach Senior, there is no expectation of further progression to Lead or Principal. In fact, most people will not achieve the Principal title! We see that level as reserved for people whose innovative work creates a resounding impact across the organization and even the industry. Those who do end up progressing all the way through our path usually have worked at Anedot for a decade or more. The proficiencies expected of all of our major teams by level are being documented and we'll provide links to everyone once updated. ## Performance Reviews You'll meet with your manager for formal performance reviews. When you're new to Anedot, you'll meet at the 45 day and 100 day, 6-month, and 1-year marks. Then you'll meet once a year, around your anniversary with the company. Your manager will share performance expectations for your role when you start, and they'll keep you apprised of any changes to expectations should they evolve. Managers are expected to document performance review outcomes and any action items or deadlines that come out of the meetings. ## Performance Improvement Plans If your work performance is not meeting expectations, you may be put on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). We only initiate PIPs if your manager's concern is correctable in the short term. We do not initiate PIPs for fundamental performance issues that relate to your core job skills. If you're a Programmer whose coding skills are not at the level they need to be, we'd forego a PIP. However, we may initiate a PIP to help you improve your performance in a coachable skill like project management. ### Gracious Goodbyes Change is normal and we embrace it. That's why we practice **Gracious Goodbyes**. If a team member is asked to leave Anedot, it generally does not reflect on if we like them or if they are talented—it boils down to mutual fit, something we aggressively pursue. If a team member decides to leave Anedot, we ask for two weeks' written notice of the intention to depart. Either way, we are committed to making the transition as smooth as possible.