> What I concluded was that I was better as an L6 than an L7
This generalizes: often people want a promotion because it's the "next thing", but in many cases once you are mid career a promotion can make you pretty unhappy. Having a clear idea of how the work & responsibility will differ, and whether it is what you actually want.
My dad explained it to me like this when I was a kid. I ignored it for a long time, but it definitely stuck in the back of my head. I asked him if we wanted to get a promotion or be a manager but he said he thought his role as a documents library was fine.
"Do you know the Peter Principle? It's the idea that you get promoted when you do good work, but at some point, you'll be promoted to a level you're not competent to do, and get stuck there, or fired." He then expanded: "In this case, I perceive that the additional responsibilities and stress associated with a higher level position or management would make me unhappy, and I don't truly need the extra money."
For nearly my entire career I have pursued advancement with the utmost drive. Originally that was going to be grad school->postdoc->professor at major research university->make amazing discovery but at some point I realized that I was only ever going to be a professor as a minor reesarch university (and spend hundred+ hours a week treading water) and switched to the postdoc->software engineer->tech lead path. It wasn't until I did the Tech Lead role, got promoted to L6 and started to think about being a manager or getting to L7 (or getting Exceeds at L6) that I started to realize the truth of what my dad was saying. I've reached a level I'm perfecetly comfortable at, and could stay here until retirement. I was mainly chasing the advancement for ego and money reasons.
This is very similar to my path. I grew up poor and had a bad time in school, so I didn't make it in college as well. Once I started working in the industry though, I went all in all the time. Made myself the kind of engineer that people from startups around. Became a manager, a co-founder, a director, and was incredibly close to accepting a CIO/CTO role. With each goal I found I was less and less happy, eventually I took a boring job at a consulting firm that works with boring industries and Fortune 500 types. I'm a principal engineer and architect and it's boring as hell but it pays incredibly well, is super stable, and I get to go train bjj for 2.5 hours twice a week during the middle of the work day. I'm happier than I've been since I landed that first programming job.
> With each goal I found I was less and less happy, eventually I took a boring job at a consulting firm that works with boring industries and Fortune 500 types. I'm a principal engineer and architect and it's boring as hell but it pays incredibly well, is super stable...
I relate with this a lot. Maybe it is that I burned out or its my Age (40 later this year), but after being 8 years churning along in startup leadership (as tech lead and then Head of Engineering in two startups), now I accepted an "Architect" role which does not have all the craziness of being "in charge" of the whole system all the time, and "herding cats" managing people. I am SO HAPPY now I cannot believe I landed this role, and I hope I keep it for some time.
I think the only time I am going to "run very fast" is if I make my own company. Which won't be VC backed (in all these years in VC land, I've not liked the VC model).
What no I want a promotion because the top tier of software engineers make salaries in the 2-300s while random marketing directors at midwestern insurance companies make that.
This generalizes: often people want a promotion because it's the "next thing", but in many cases once you are mid career a promotion can make you pretty unhappy. Having a clear idea of how the work & responsibility will differ, and whether it is what you actually want.