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career-development

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Career Development

职业发展

Before Starting

开始之前

Check for EM context first:
  1. Read 
    .agents/em-context.md
    if it exists
  2. If a person is mentioned, look for 
    .agents/reports/[name].md
    — it may contain their level, goals, and growth history
  3. Use that context — only ask for information not already covered
If 
.agents/em-context.md
does not exist, ask for a minimal manager profile first and save it before giving detailed advice: role/title, team size, team mission or ownership area, and current challenge or priority.
If a specific person is central to the conversation and 
.agents/reports/[name].md
does not exist, ask for a minimal profile for that person first and save it before giving detailed advice: title/level, tenure, strengths, and current challenge or growth area.

If the conversation reveals durable new context later, update 
.agents/em-context.md
or 
.agents/reports/[name].md
automatically. Save stable facts and patterns, not guesses, transient frustration, or unresolved interpretations.

首先确认工程经理（EM）的背景信息：
  1. 如果存在
    .agents/em-context.md
    文件，请阅读该文件
  2. 如果提及特定人员，请查找
    .agents/reports/[name].md
    文件——其中可能包含他们的职级、目标和成长历程
  3. 利用已有背景信息——仅询问未涵盖的信息
如果
.agents/em-context.md
文件不存在，请先询问并保存经理的基本信息，再提供详细建议：职位/头衔、团队规模、团队使命或负责领域，以及当前面临的挑战或优先级。
如果对话围绕特定人员展开，且
.agents/reports/[name].md
文件不存在，请先询问并保存该人员的基本信息，再提供详细建议：头衔/职级、任职年限、优势，以及当前面临的挑战或成长方向。

如果对话后续出现可长期留存的新背景信息，请自动更新
.agents/em-context.md
或
.agents/reports/[name].md
文件。仅保存稳定的事实和模式，不要保存猜测内容、暂时的情绪或未明确的解读。

Response Style

回应风格

Keep the first answer concise and useful. Do not dump the whole framework unless the user asks for depth.
Default to:
  • State the likely diagnosis or recommendation first
  • Ask at most 2-3 targeted questions only if the missing context changes the advice
  • Give the next concrete action and, when useful, exact wording the manager can use
  • Mention the relevant framework briefly, but do not explain every part of it
  • Offer a deeper version only after the direct answer
首次回答需简洁实用。除非用户要求深入讲解，否则不要全盘输出整个框架。
默认遵循以下原则：
  • 先说明可能的诊断结果或建议
  • 仅当缺失的背景信息会影响建议时，最多提出2-3个针对性问题
  • 给出具体的下一步行动，必要时提供经理可直接使用的精确措辞
  • 简要提及相关框架，但无需解释框架的每个部分
  • 仅在直接回答后，再提供深入版本的内容

How to Use This Skill

如何使用此Skill

  • Where is this person developmentally / what's their current level of impact? → The Circles of Influence Model
  • Report is fixated on a specific title or timeline → The Tarzan Method
  • Someone's growth seems to have stalled → What Growth Actually Looks Like
  • Not sure what to say in the career conversation → Having the Career Conversation
  • Deciding whether to push for a promotion now → Promotion Readiness vs. Promotion Timing
  • 该人员的发展阶段/当前影响力水平如何？ → 使用Circles of Influence模型
  • 下属执着于特定头衔或时间线 → 使用Tarzan Method
  • 某人的成长似乎停滞了 → 参考《成长的真实模样》
  • 不确定职业谈话该说些什么 → 参考《开展职业谈话》
  • 决定是否现在推动晋升 → 区分晋升准备度与晋升时机

Default Response Shape

默认回应结构

When helping with career development, produce a manager-ready plan:
  1. Current growth read: where the person appears to be operating now.
  2. Next growth edge: what kind of impact they need to demonstrate next.
  3. Conversation questions: what to ask in the next career 1:1.
  4. Opportunities to create: projects, visibility, mentoring, ownership, or scope.
  5. Expectation setting: what to say about timing, evidence, and promotion limits.
Do not promise promotion. Separate "ready to grow" from "the organization has a slot and evidence."
在协助职业发展问题时，生成一份适合经理使用的计划：
  1. 当前成长评估： 该人员当前的工作状态。
  2. 下一个成长方向： 他们下一步需要展现的影响力类型。
  3. 谈话问题： 下次一对一职业谈话中应提出的问题。
  4. 可创造的机会： 项目、曝光机会、指导、所有权或职责范围。
  5. 预期设定： 关于时机、证据和晋升限制的沟通内容。
不要承诺晋升。区分“已准备好成长”与“组织有相应岗位且具备证据”。

The Circles of Influence Model

Circles of Influence模型

A useful frame for thinking about where an engineer is and where they're going. Impact expands in concentric circles:
Personal — Masters their own craft. Delivers reliable results. Writes good code, handles on-call, completes tasks well. This is the foundation.
Team — Makes the team better. Onboards new members, reviews others' code effectively, gives useful feedback, covers for teammates. Their absence would be felt on the team.
Group — Shapes cross-team work. Leads cross-functional initiatives, participates in hiring, influences architecture decisions that span teams. Their impact reaches beyond their immediate team.
Company — Drives org-wide outcomes. Sets technical direction, builds capability across multiple teams, affects how the whole engineering organization works.
How to use this in career conversations:
  • Figure out which circle the engineer is currently operating in consistently.
  • The next step up requires expanding impact, not just deepening skill in the current circle.
  • The promotion case is made at the next circle — not by getting better at the current one.
A Senior engineer who writes excellent code but never helps teammates grow is strong at the Personal circle but hasn't entered the Team circle. That's the gap to address, not more technical depth.
这是一个用于判断工程师当前状态及未来发展方向的实用框架。影响力以同心圆形式扩展：
个人层面 —— 精通自身技能，交付可靠成果。编写优质代码、处理值班任务、出色完成工作。这是基础。
团队层面 —— 提升团队整体能力。协助新成员融入、有效评审他人代码、提供有用反馈、为队友补位。他们的缺席会对团队产生影响。
群组层面 —— 影响跨团队工作。领导跨职能项目、参与招聘工作、影响跨团队的架构决策。他们的影响力超出直属团队范围。
公司层面 —— 推动全公司层面的成果。制定技术方向、提升多个团队的能力、影响整个工程组织的运作方式。
如何在职业谈话中使用此模型：
  • 判断工程师当前持续处于哪个影响力圈层。
  • 晋升的下一步需要扩展影响力，而非仅深化当前圈层的技能。
  • 晋升的依据是在下一个圈层的表现，而非当前圈层的能力提升。
例如，一位资深工程师代码写得非常出色，但从不帮助队友成长，那么他在个人层面表现强劲，但尚未进入团队层面。需要解决的是这个差距，而非进一步提升技术深度。

The Tarzan Method

Tarzan Method

Engineers (and managers) often assume careers move in straight lines: engineer → senior → staff → principal, or EM → director → VP. This leads to fixating on the fastest route up a single ladder.
The reality: senior roles require both capability AND company need. You can be fully capable of a Staff Engineer role but there's no Staff-level problem for you to own right now. The role has to exist and need filling at the moment you're ready for it.
The Tarzan model: swing to the next vine, not to the destination. Tarzan doesn't plan a route across the jungle — he grabs the next available vine, swings as far as it takes him, then looks for the next one. Careers work the same way.
Practical implications for career conversations with reports:
  • Help them identify the next swing, not a 5-year plan.
  • A lateral move or a "detour" into a different area often builds the breadth that enables the jump to senior impact later.
  • Fixation on a specific title by a specific date is usually counterproductive — the right opportunity has to exist, and forcing it creates bad outcomes (jumping to a company that needs someone at that level before they're actually ready, for instance).
工程师（及经理）通常认为职业发展是直线式的：工程师→资深工程师→主管工程师→首席工程师，或EM→总监→副总裁。这会导致他们执着于单一阶梯的最快晋升路径。
现实情况是：高级职位既需要能力，也需要公司的需求。你可能完全具备主管工程师的能力，但目前团队没有需要主管工程师负责的问题。只有当你准备好时，对应的岗位恰好存在且需要填补，才能晋升。
Tarzan模型：抓住下一根藤蔓，而非直接奔向目的地。 Tarzan不会规划穿越丛林的完整路线——他抓住下一根可及的藤蔓，尽可能远地摆动，然后再寻找下一根。职业发展也是如此。
在与下属的职业谈话中的实际应用：
  • 帮助他们确定下一次摆动，而非5年计划。
  • 横向调动或“绕道”进入不同领域，往往能积累广度，为日后晋升到高级影响力岗位奠定基础。
  • 执着于特定时间点的特定头衔通常会适得其反——合适的机会必须存在，强行推进会导致不良结果（例如，在实际准备好之前跳槽到需要该职级的公司）。

What Growth Actually Looks Like

成长的真实模样

Growth isn't a continuous line — it comes in bursts separated by consolidation periods. Signs an engineer is growing:
  • They're working on problems slightly beyond their current comfort zone
  • They're making decisions they previously would have escalated
  • They're teaching others things they've learned
  • Their scope of ownership is expanding
Signs growth has stalled (and what to do):
  • Same problems, same tools, no stretch — find them something harder
  • Expanding technically but not building relationships or influence — give them cross-team work
  • Making the same mistakes repeatedly — this is a feedback gap, not a growth gap; address the feedback first
成长并非连续的直线——它是由巩固期分隔的爆发式增长。工程师正在成长的迹象：
  • 处理略超出当前舒适区的问题
  • 做出此前会向上级请示的决策
  • 将所学知识传授给他人
  • 负责的范围不断扩大
成长停滞的迹象（及应对措施）：
  • 重复处理相同问题、使用相同工具，没有挑战性——为他们安排更难的任务
  • 技术能力提升，但未建立人际关系或影响力——安排跨团队工作
  • 反复犯相同错误——这是反馈缺口，而非成长缺口；首先解决反馈问题

Having the Career Conversation

开展职业谈话

Career development conversations are uncomfortable for a lot of managers because they feel high-stakes. Some principles:
Ask before advising. "What does growth look like for you in the next year?" beats "here's what I think you should work on." You'll often get a much clearer picture of what they actually want, which may differ significantly from what you assumed.
Separate "what they want" from "what the company needs." Be honest when these aren't aligned. If someone wants to move into a Staff role but the team doesn't have Staff-level problems, say so — and help them think through what that means (a different team, a different company, a different timeframe).
Be specific about the gap. "You need to show more leadership" is useless. "The gap I see is that you're not yet driving alignment with the PM and design on your projects — you're still waiting for requirements rather than shaping them" is something they can act on.
Document it. After a career conversation, write down what was discussed and share it with the report. Memory is unreliable. A written note creates shared accountability.
很多经理觉得职业发展谈话令人不安，因为他们认为这关系重大。以下是一些原则：
先询问，再建议。 “你未来一年的成长目标是什么？”比“我认为你应该专注于这些方面”更有效。你往往能更清楚地了解他们的真实需求，这可能与你的假设大相径庭。
区分“他们想要的”与“公司需要的”。 当两者不一致时，要坦诚相待。如果有人想晋升为主管工程师，但团队没有主管工程师级别的问题，直接说明这一点——并帮助他们思考这意味着什么（转岗到其他团队、跳槽到其他公司、调整时间线）。
明确指出差距。 “你需要展现更多领导力”毫无用处。“我看到的差距是，你尚未推动项目与产品经理和设计师的对齐——你仍在等待需求，而非主动塑造需求”是他们可以采取行动的具体建议。
记录谈话内容。 职业谈话结束后，写下讨论内容并分享给下属。记忆并不可靠。书面记录能建立共同的责任感。

Promotion Readiness vs. Promotion Timing

晋升准备度与晋升时机

Two separate questions that managers often conflate:
Is this person ready for promotion? — Are they consistently operating at the next level? Do they have a track record of impact at that level, not just occasional moments?
Is now the right time to push the case? — Is there headcount/budget for a promotion? Is the calibration cycle coming up? Do you have enough documented evidence? Is the person visible enough to the people who will weigh in?
Both have to be true. Pushing someone for promotion before they're ready damages your credibility and can actually set them back. Waiting too long after they're ready damages trust and risks losing them.
The rule: start building the promotion case while the person is still being developed — document impact, get visibility, prepare specific examples. Don't scramble at calibration time.
这是两个经理常混淆的问题：
该人员是否已准备好晋升？ —— 他们是否持续达到下一级别的要求？是否有该级别影响力的记录，而非偶尔的表现？
现在是推动晋升的合适时机吗？ —— 是否有晋升的名额/预算？校准周期是否即将到来？是否有足够的书面证据？该人员在评审者面前的曝光度是否足够？
两者必须同时满足。在人员准备好之前推动晋升会损害你的可信度，甚至阻碍他们的发展。在他们准备好后等待太久会损害信任，可能导致人才流失。
原则：在人员培养过程中就开始构建晋升案例——记录影响力、提升曝光度、准备具体案例。不要在校准期临时抱佛脚。

Dive Deeper

深入探索

If the user asks where a framework came from, wants to read the original article, or wants more context on any topic in this skill — read 
references/sources.md
 for the full list of source articles (with links) and books.
如果用户询问框架的来源、想要阅读原文或了解本Skill中任何主题的更多背景信息，请查看
references/sources.md
获取完整的来源文章（含链接）和书籍列表。

Related Skills

相关Skills

  • 1on1s
    — The primary venue for ongoing career conversations
  • performance-reviews
    — Promotion cases are made at review time; the groundwork is laid here
  • managing-high-performers
    — High performers need growth challenges to stay engaged
  • management-transitions
    — Counseling engineers on whether management is the right path
  • 1on1s
    —— 持续职业谈话的主要场景
  • performance-reviews
    —— 晋升案例在评审时提交，基础工作在此Skill中完成
  • managing-high-performers
    —— 高绩效员工需要成长挑战以保持投入
  • management-transitions
    —— 为工程师提供是否转向管理路线的咨询