Role Progression Self-Assessment
Work out honestly which level you are operating at and what the actual gap is — scored against what each level requires, with the uncomfortable questions that identify why progression has stalled.
Markdown. No sign-up, no email.
Fill this in for yourself, then — if you are brave — ask someone who works with you to fill in the same sheet about you. The gap between the two is usually the most useful information on the page.
Read Career Paths first for what each level means.
Name: _______________ Current role / level: _______________ Target level: _______________ Date: _______
1. Which level are you actually operating at?#
Score each row 1–5 on how consistently it is true of your work over the last six months — not your best week.
| Score | |
|---|---|
| I complete well-scoped tasks without them coming back | |
| I need the work broken down for me before I start | |
| I take an ambiguous problem and scope it myself | |
| I notice what was not said in the request | |
| I ask the awkward question early rather than the obvious one late | |
| My design decisions still look right a year later | |
| Other people's work is better because of my review | |
| Problems that would have become incidents quietly do not | |
| I am trusted with the vague, high-consequence work |
Rough reading: strong on the first two only = operating at entry level. Strong through the middle three = mid. Consistently strong on the last four = senior, whatever your title says.
2. The evidence test#
For your target level, name a real example from the last six months. If a row is blank, that is the gap — not a training course.
| Requirement at target level | My concrete example |
|---|---|
Vague answers here are the point of the exercise. "I'm good at architecture" is not an example. "I chose X over Y for this system, here is what I traded away, and here is how it held up" is.
3. Technical gaps#
List at most three. More than three means you are collecting rather than progressing.
| Gap | Why it matters for the target role | How I close it | By when |
|---|---|---|---|
Prefer closing a gap by doing something real — see Projects — over reading about it.
4. The uncomfortable questions#
Answer these honestly; they identify stalls that no amount of study fixes.
Am I finishing things, or starting impressive things? _______________
When did I last tell someone bad news early? _______________
What have I written that other people used? _______________
Is my current role capable of giving me the next level's work? yes / no
Have I explicitly asked for that scope? yes / no — when: _______
The most common stall is at mid level: engineers who keep adding technologies when the actual constraint has become handling ambiguity and saying what they will not do.
If you have asked for larger scope twice and been declined, the constraint is the role rather than your readiness. That is worth knowing clearly rather than assuming the problem is you.
5. The next three months#
| # | Commitment | Evidence it happened | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 |
Three is the limit. A plan with nine items is a wish list, and it will be abandoned by week four.
6. Review#
| Date | What changed | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-assessed | ||
| Someone else assessed me | ||
| Reviewed with my manager | ||
| Next review |
Biggest difference between my score and theirs: _______________
That difference is worth a conversation. People consistently over-rate themselves on judgement and under-rate themselves on influence — and both misreadings send you to the wrong work.