There's this article on quitting Google that was going around the web a few weeks ago.

My first thought reading it was, "Wow! It sounds like the promotion process at Google is a little broken".

But Google isn't dumb. On further consideration, (and also thanks to this enlightening article) I think their promotions process is working exactly as intended.

Let me explain with an example. I knew a guy once who worked in the IT department of Name of Giant Retail Corporation Redacted. Like most employees at Redacted, he was a contractor, and had been for several years. He was in the running for a promotion. The promotion would allow him to become a salaried employee rather than a contractor, and move his title up from senior developer to lead developer. The promotion process was arduous: He had to wear a suit and tie to sit for a panel interview. Once he passed that, he was given a trial project with a deadline in 4 weeks. It was a project far too large to be accomplished by one developer in that timeframe, no matter how good he was. To receive the promotion, he had to prove his leadership ability by recruiting fellow developers to help with the project, delegating pieces of it, and successfully pulling the whole thing together.

Now, this guy was a superb developer. Not only was he skilled at coding, he was one of those people who has such a genial temperment that he made any group he was in work better together. He didn't need to jump through all those hoops to get a better title, salaried benefits, or a raise. Plenty of other companies would have lined up outside his door step to beg him to accept such things.

But somehow, the very fact that the promotion was difficult to attain made it desireable. People who were salaried employees within the company (remember, a benefit that most companies give to everyone) wore it like a red badge of courage; something awarded to only the few and the proud. It literally involved receiving a different-colored access badge. It helped create a self-image of a company composed of only the top engineers: Either engineers who were competing for the highest honors, or intellectual giants who had obtained them.

In other words, the purpose of the arduous promotion process at Google and Redacted isn't to make sure that the senior engineers are a corps of the best of the best of the best. It's to give all engineers a brass ring to chase after. People who have plenty of opportunities elsewhere will stick around year after year trying to prove to the company (and even moreso, to themselves) that they are worthy of the big promotion. People who have earned that promotion will feel a mighty sense of achievement; both a feeling that they only made it into this elite club by the skin of their teeth and a little luck, and a feeling of pride that they were able to earn it. They will hesitate to relinquish that status by moving on to a different company.

I can't really criticize Google or Redacted for pulling these tricks. It seems a little manipulative, but I can't argue with its effectiveness. It certainly allowed Redacted to maintain a higher quality of engineering than they would have been able to otherwise, and without even paying extra for it. But for our own sake, I can't help but think that its better for us developers if we refuse to participate in these sorts of games.