Career development is the non-linear, lifelong growth process integrating learning, work, leisure, and change. It happens in all directions, including subject matter expertise, lateral growth to new teams, and linear growth through a job family. Use the recources on this page to navigate your career growth at GitLab.
Navigate to career development resources located throughout the GitLab handbook:
| Role | Responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Team Member Owned | - Take charge of your own development and career - Close the skill gap for current and future positions - Seize development and stretch opportunities - Remember there are no promises or guarantees of a promotion |
| Manager Facilitated | - Take time with team members to discuss their career aspirations - Listen and provide feedback, ideas and contacts - Make choices to support their development |
| GitLab Supported | - Communicate future direction and skills requirements - Provide information and tools when applicable - Communicate internal opportunities |
A live speaker series hosted in March 2022 with Lavinia Mehedintu gets to the 'why' of career development. Embrace your own self-authorship while using the following tools to fit your goals. In the session, Lavinia spoke about:
GitLab team members should not feel pressure to climb the career ladder. Skill development and promotion are not mutually exclusive. Unique experience influences problem solving and views of success.
You are encouraged to learn and develop skills without pressure to in turn seek promotion. Team members will not be thought less of or penalized if they don't view promotion as a success measure. If you feel you are not being supported in this way, please reach out to People Connect or your People Business Partner.
| Topic | Definition | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Choosing and building a career path that accelerates professional growth. | Learn new skills, complete a course, be a mentee |
| Mobility | Career mobility involves both lateral (promotions) and horizontal (transfers) movement along a career path. Mobility involves applying experience and skills as leverage for a new role. | Mentor to learn leadership skills with the intention of applying for a manager role; Complete a job shadow or internship and upskill to transfer to a new team. |
Watch this live speaker series where we talk to Leah Weiss of Skylyte about the connection between wellbeing, purpose, and our career growth.
The Individual Growth Plan (IGP) is a tool to help you, the DRI of your career, plan and action on your career growth. It's a template to guide you through career goal setting and action planning. Think of the IGP template as a starting place, where you have the freedom to reflect on your career, answer and dive deeper on sections that help spark your interest and think differently about your career development.
The IGP can help with:
Looking for a step-by-step guide on filling out the IGP? Use the resources below:
Watch: interview with a GitLab team member who's used the Individual Growth Plan to plan a career transition at GitLab.
Some call it a "brag sheet". Some call it a CREDIT Tracker. Either way, it's a great place to collect your accomplishments and feedback. Utizlize the accomplishment tracker in conjunction with the IGP and GitLab Epics.
Make a copy of this health tracker in Google Sheets and save it to your drive. Use it to track the current status and long term goals you've set for your growth.
Epics are a great way to transparently and efficiently track your work and connect learning to your results.
Watch the full conversation with Camilla Boyer at GitLab here
| Value | Career Conversations Application |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | Growth is led by individuals and supported by managers. |
| Results | Growth increases engagement with work which drives greater results. |
| Efficiency | Growth happens in the flow of work. |
| Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging | Our experiences influence career motivations and the support we need. |
| Iteration | Motivation changes and promotes growth that is meaningful, interesting, and relevant. |
| Transparency | Trust enables vulnerability and support in reaching true career goals. |
The video below is a recording of the Live Learning that took place in August 2021 as part of our Career Development Skill of the Month.
Team Members: Take the Support your team with Career Conversations course in Level Up to review the material below!
| During career conversations, managers: | Description |
|---|---|
| Listen | Understand career goals and unique challenges your team faces. |
| Are aware of bias | Recognize the power dynamic and unconscious bias that could be present. |
| Ask questions | Challenge and encourage your team to think critically about their career motivations and learning goals. |
| Surface resources | Share what you know, including internal and external resources, network connections, and suggested actions. |
| Suggest iterations | Encourage reassessment of goals and adjustments as needed. |
| Set expectations | Decide together the date of your next career conversations and the outcomes to achieve by that date. |
Managers should support their direct reports with their professional development goals. Implement the following into a 1-1, team meeting, or async communication to support your team.
Sample questions to ask your team:
It’s critical to understand how the diverse experiences and perspectives of individuals influence their approach to career growth. Without the right support, behaviors by team members from underrepresented groups might influence their growth. Consider how the following might influence growth on your team
| Behavior | Example |
|---|---|
| Raised Hands | Who opts in? Who doesn’t? Who’s your go to person for stretch projects? Lack of opting in might be influenced by imposter syndrome, not a lack of interest. |
| Starting the Conversation | Who already set up career conversations with you? Who hasn’t? Like opting in, this could indicate different expectations of growth rather than disinterest. |
| Stretch Projects | Share equitably across your team. Be aware of who got the last opportunity. Ask open and honestly about everyone’s interests and capacity before allocating stretch projects. |
| Beyond Work | Consider the jobs we have outside of work. These responsibilities might influence our career growth but do not have to limit it. |
| Cultural | Career growth expectations vary around the world. Ask your team individually about their expectations rather than making assumptions based on your experience. |
| Bias | Biases that might especially be prevalent in career conversations could include past roles and companies, performance, and authority. |
Aim to have career converations with your team 2 times per year. Consider having these conversations in Q2 and Q4, aligning after talent conversations and planning for the next year.
This cadence is not required and can be adjusted as needed. Career conversations can happen during a regularly scheduled 1:1 or in a separate meeting.
Use the following templates to plan and prepare for career conversations with your team:
What do managers ask about when it comes to having career conversations with their teams? Watch the short question and answer videos below to learn more. Watch the full training from 2021-08 here.
| Question | Answers from the GitLab Team |
|---|---|
| You started managing a team 6 months ago with 4 direct reports. One is performing well, but has not yet talked to you about career development. As their manager, What steps should you take? | |
| One of your direct reports has indicated they aren't interested in growing to the next level or developing further as they are happy in their current role. As their manager, what steps would you take? | |
| Your direct report has indicated they are ready to move to, and are already performing at, the next level. As their manager, what steps would you take? | |
| A direct report feels ready to move to the next level, but aren't fully performing in their current role. As their manager, what steps would you take? | |
| A career conversation becomes emotional - what do you do? | |
| How often do you have career conversations with your team? | |
| What about team members who don't have strong sense of their career goals yet? How do you support them? | |
| What fears do managers at GitLab have when it comes to having career conversations? |
Career Conversation Acknowledgements happen at a division basis. Check with your People Business Partner if your division is doing this.
Career development is a key factor in team member engagement and role satisfaction. As part of the FY'20 GitLab annual engagement survey results it was clear that team members want to have meaningful conversations with their managers on an annual basis or even more frequently.
This process is just an acknowledgement by the team member that they have had career conversations. Aligned with the Performance/Potential matrix cadence, formal career conversations will ideally happen twice per year:
The bi-annual cadence is not required, but recommended. Some team members may prefer annual career conversations, other team members may prefer more informal check-ins quarterly. This is a personal decision that should be made between team member and manager. The minimal recommended cadence for career development conversations is annnually, the most frequency recommended cadence is quarterly.
Please note that while managers can facilitate career development conversations with team members and help guide growth plans by using our internal resources, managers cannot complete the acknowledgement process for team members.
Effective FY21, each member of the E-Group will have a performance conversation with their direct manager, the CEO, at the beginning of the new fiscal year. These conversations will assess alignment to each of our credit values, performance and personal development.
The E-Group will follow a similar process to our GitLab team member process with the additional requirement of a self review.
Performance Factors
Compensation Reviews
When conducting compensation reviews for the E-Group, GitLab will review two items:
