How Fair is Performance Evaluation for Tech ICs vs Managers?

In the 13+ years that I spent in engineering at Google and Facebook, a little over half of it was as a manager, and the rest was as an individual contributor (IC) in software engineering. During this time, I’ve attended or chaired dozens of performance calibration and promotion sessions. Based on them, I’ve come to a possibly controversial conclusion that evaluation isn’t perfectly fair for ICs versus managers, at least in big tech. I care because if there’s been one theme consistent in my approach to leadership over the years, it’s that I want fair outcomes — for everyone.

Specifically, there appears to be a gap in how performance ratings are assigned to low ranked software engineers (ICs) versus senior leaders and managers, that can potentially put ICs at a disadvantage. This disparity doesn’t always happen, but it can happen if close attention isn’t paid. There are two sets of opposing effects that cause this disparity:

Performance Evaluation for ICs Tend to be More Objective:

• ICs are…