1. Promotions often depend more on relationships than measurable performance.
2. Career progression is slow; moving from L4 to L5 typically takes 3–4 years, which can hinder growth.
3. Heavy office politics in certain domains reduce focus on engineering impact.
4. Too many ineffective senior roles lead to resource waste and reinforce politics.
5. AI pivot feels unbalanced, with visibility sometimes rewarded more than execution.