Promotions: How do you know when you're ready? Do you wait to get offered one? Do you ask directly? Do you just switch jobs to get one?

I’ve always just switched jobs. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Raise and/or promotion every time, and a fresh start without political baggage. It’s nice.

All 3.

You talk with your direct manager and see what's involved for your own growth to get there.

You let it be, horde all the knowledge, become the single dev for the company and call yourself what ever you want - no one around to argue.

You find another company that you have convinced you are a more senior position then you currently are and take that job.

@Root after how many months of working until you switched your jobs?

@volttide 6-18 months.

The duration depends on office/company politics, my level of burnout, how stressful and interesting the work was, and how much I’m learning there. As soon as I get bored and there’s nothing else for me to learn, I start looking for something new.

Semi-related:

During my game dev career, I switched between roles, games, dev/management positions, etc. at about the same interval, but stayed at the same company for most of it. That made me much more well-rounded game dev, a much better game designer, and kept things fresh and interesting. I still miss it, but not the hours nor the crippling burnout they caused.

If you wait to get offered one then (most of the time) you'll be waiting forever. It's a very, very slow way to advance your career.

Other two - it depends.

Asking is fine, but some people are bad at negotiation, or just don't like those sorts of frank discussions (find them awkward, worry how the manager will react, etc.

Moving avoids all that, and often gets you a much bigger raise as well. But then you have to take time off for interviews, you're moving to an unknown, and some people find that process way more stressful than just having a conversation with your existing manager.

You're ready when there's room in your wallet

Let’s say you wanna become a PM or PO:
1. tell your boss it’s your goal.
2. practice a bit when opportunities arise. Ask to lead the next minor project. Or hold a workshop. And the next product meeting if the PO is sick/busy - ask if you can step in instead of the meeting being postponed
3. If you wanna go slow you can continue doing this for a while and wait for a spot to open up - the boss will have you as a topOfMind option for the job