Why Levels Matter

You’ve got a shiny offer. Congratulations. Now comes the part where a mysterious combination of letters and numbers—L3, L5, L7—quietly decides your pay, expectations, and how many meetings you’ll sit in. Levels determine your day-to-day reality more than the job description ever will.

Think of level as the company’s promise: “Here’s the scope you’ll own, the ambiguity you’ll navigate, and the influence we expect you to wield.” Get it wrong and you can end up bored, overwhelmed, or plateaued. Get it right and you compound impact—and compensation.

Job is what you do. Level is how big you do it, how independently, and who trusts you to do it.