Microsoft Promotion: The Connect Process and What Gets You to the Next Level

Microsoft's promotion process runs through Connect documents, peer perspectives, manager-led calibration sessions, and a rewards budget system that determines your compensation. Your manager proposes, skip-levels endorse, and HR calibrates. Understanding how each step works - and where your case can break down - is the difference between moving to the next level and staying put for another year.

Unlike Google, where a committee reads your packet, or Amazon, where a narrative is debated in an OLR meeting, Microsoft's process is more manager-dependent. Your manager creates a 1-pager for calibration based on your Connect document and peer feedback. If your Connect is vague, your manager's 1-pager will be vague. If your peer perspectives are weak, your manager has less ammunition. Every piece of evidence flows through your manager, which means the quality of what you give them directly determines the quality of the case they present.

This guide covers how the process works from Connect to calibration to rewards, what each level transition requires, and the specific steps that get promotions approved in 2025's tighter review environment.

Microsoft's Level System: The Map

Microsoft uses a numeric level system that spans from 59 to 80+. Here is the structure for individual contributors:

• Levels 59-60: Entry-level (SDE). Typically new graduates or those with limited experience.
• Levels 61-62: Mid-level (SDE II). A few years of professional experience.
• Level 63-64: Senior (Senior SDE). Significant experience and demonstrated technical leadership.
• Levels 65-67: Principal (Principal SDE). Strategic thinkers with organizational impact.
• Levels 68-70: Partner and Distinguished Engineer. Executive-level scope.

The critical threshold is Level 63. At 63, you are officially "Senior" and this is considered the terminal level - you can remain here indefinitely without pressure to advance. Getting to 63 requires demonstrating cross-group impact. Getting beyond 63 requires fundamentally different evidence.

Estimated Promotion Timelines

These are approximate and vary significantly by team and organization:

• 59 to 60: approximately 1 year
• 60 to 61: approximately 1 year
• 61 to 62: approximately 2 years
• 62 to 63: approximately 3 years
• 63 to 64: approximately 3 years
• 64 to 65: approximately 5+ years (many never reach this level)

The jump from 64 to 65 (Senior to Principal) is comparable to the Senior to Staff jump at Google and Meta. It requires a fundamentally different scope and type of impact. For a deeper comparison, read our tech promotion levels guide.

How the Promotion Process Works: Connect to Calibration to Rewards

Microsoft's review cycle runs on the fiscal year (July to June). Here is the full process:

Step 1: Connect Document (You)

Connect is a private document that you create to record your work, impact, and growth. You should have a formal Connect discussion with your manager at least twice per year (often in January and June), though many teams do quarterly check-ins.

Your Connect should cover three "circles of impact":

• Individual - Your key technical accomplishments, projects shipped, and problems solved.
• Team - How your work contributed to team goals, processes, and outcomes.
• Organization/Broader - How your work impacted other teams, the business, or customers at scale.

Critical detail: Your manager uses your Connect document as the primary input for creating the 1-pager they present at calibration. The 1-pager is never shown to you. If your Connect is thin on specifics, your manager's 1-pager will be too.

Step 2: Peer Perspectives (Your Colleagues)

Peer feedback, called "perspectives," is collected before the Connect review - typically around May and November. This is technically a separate process from Connect, but the feedback flows into your manager's overall assessment.

Strategic tip: Choose perspective providers who can speak to different aspects of your work. Someone who saw your technical depth. Someone from another team who can attest to cross-group collaboration. Someone who benefited from your mentoring. Diversity of perspectives strengthens your case at calibration.

Step 3: Manager Assessment

Your manager evaluates your performance using internal impact descriptors that are not shared with you directly. The four categories are:

• Exceptional Impact - Top performers. Significantly exceeded expectations.
• Successful Impact - Met or moderately exceeded expectations. This is where most employees land.
• Slightly Lower Impact than Expected (SLITE) - Fell short of expectations in some areas.
• Lower than Expected Impact (LITE) - Significant underperformance.

These descriptors exist to promote a growth mindset rather than a numeric rating system - Microsoft intentionally moved away from visible ratings after eliminating stack ranking in 2013. However, these internal labels directly influence your compensation and promotion trajectory.

Step 4: Calibration (Managers and Leadership)

Microsoft calls these meetings "talent reviews" or "talent celebrations" rather than calibration, though the function is the same. Here is how it works:

• Your manager creates a 1-pager for you based on your Connect and peer perspectives.
• Managers bring their 1-pagers to a meeting with their peers and their skip-level manager.
• Each manager presents their reports objectively.
• Employees are compared across teams to ensure consistency and fairness.
• The group determines a rewards number for each employee.

The outcome of calibration is a number, generally on a scale of 0-200. HR provides a default budget of approximately 110 points per employee. The extra points above 100 can be allocated to higher performers. Managers decide how to distribute within their budget. You never see this number directly, but you can estimate it based on your compensation adjustment.

Step 5: Rewards (July-September)

The fiscal year starts in July. Budget and headcount decisions finalize by late June. Employees hear their rewards results between mid-August and mid-September. Rewards include three components:

• Salary increase (percentage of base)
• Stock grant (RSU vesting over 4 years)
• Cash bonus (percentage of target bonus)

Managers describe rewards outcomes as: zero rewards (0%), partial (60-80%), full (100%), or greater than full (120%, 140%, 160%, or higher in rare cases). Getting promoted typically comes with a full or greater-than-full rewards outcome plus a level bump.

Level Transitions: What Each Promotion Requires

Levels 59-62: Producing Results

The early levels at Microsoft are primarily about execution. You are evaluated on the volume and quality of work you produce.

What calibration looks for:

• Consistent delivery of high-quality code and features
• Growing technical skills demonstrated through increasingly complex tasks
• Effective responses to code review feedback
• Beginning to contribute to team processes (testing, documentation, on-call)

At these levels, promotions are primarily your manager's decision with approval from the skip-level manager. Budget availability and pace of contribution are the main factors.

Level 62 to 63: The Senior Threshold

This is the first major promotion gate. Moving to 63 (Senior) requires demonstrating that your impact extends beyond your individual tasks to your team and beyond.

What calibration looks for:

• Cross-group impact: your work benefited teams other than your own
• Technical leadership: design reviews, architecture decisions, setting standards
• Mentoring: you helped more junior engineers grow with measurable outcomes
• Ownership: you drove projects end-to-end without requiring constant direction
• Collaboration across functions: working effectively with PMs, designers, and partner teams

The key shift: At 59-62, producing large quantities of superior quality work is sufficient. At 63, you must show that you work with other teams and deliver cross-group gains. The engineers who plateau before 63 are typically excellent individual coders who have not demonstrated collaborative impact.

Level 63 to 64: Senior to Senior (Upper Band)

Moving from 63 to 64 deepens the senior expectations. You need broader scope and more consistent influence.

What calibration looks for:

• Projects where you defined the technical approach, not just implemented it
• Influence on your team's roadmap based on technical expertise
• Mentoring outcomes: engineers you helped who are now performing at higher levels
• Recognition beyond your immediate team - are partner teams aware of your work?
• Evidence of a growth mindset: tackling new problem domains, learning new technologies

Level 64 to 65: Senior to Principal

This is the hardest promotion at Microsoft for most engineers. Level 65 (Principal) requires organizational-level impact and strategic thinking. Many strong Level 64 engineers never reach 65.

What calibration looks for:

• Organization-wide technical influence: your decisions shape how multiple teams build
• Strategic contributions: you are not just solving problems, you are identifying which problems to solve
• Developing other senior engineers into technical leaders
• Business impact that connects technical decisions to customer or revenue outcomes
• Active agreement from higher leadership (this promotion requires approval above skip-level)

The key difference: At 63-64, you can demonstrate impact through projects you own. At 65+, you need to demonstrate impact through the systems, strategies, and people you influence. Your direct technical output matters less than your organizational leverage.

For some organizations, soft skills become as important as technical skills for this transition. Working with customers, partner teams, and sales can be critical evidence for Principal-level impact.

What Changed in 2024-2025

Two significant changes have impacted how Microsoft evaluates performance and promotions:

1. Security as a Core Priority (August 2024)

In August 2024, Microsoft's Chief People Officer issued an internal memo making security a "Core Priority" for every employee. This means security contributions are now explicitly factored into performance reviews. A failure to prioritize and deliver substantial work focused on security can negatively impact salary increases, promotions, and bonuses.

What this means for your Connect: If your work involved security improvements - threat modeling, vulnerability remediation, security architecture, compliance work - document it explicitly. This is now promotion-relevant evidence in a way it was not before.

2. AI Tool Adoption as an Expectation (2025)

In 2025, Microsoft pushed employees to adopt internal AI tools like GitHub Copilot as a core part of their workflow. Using AI is no longer optional - it is expected at every role and every level.

What this means for your Connect: If you have used Copilot or other AI tools to improve your productivity, reduce code review cycles, or ship faster, include this as evidence. If you have built AI-powered solutions or helped your team adopt AI tooling, that is even stronger evidence of forward-looking impact.

3. Stricter Low-Performance Management (2025)

Microsoft implemented stricter policies for low performers in 2025. Employees placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) now have the option to accept a Global Voluntary Separation Agreement (GVSA) with severance rather than going through the PIP process. This signals a broader tightening of performance expectations across the company.

Structure of a Winning Microsoft Promotion Case

Your manager creates the 1-pager for calibration, but you provide the raw materials. Here is how to structure your Connect document to maximize the quality of what your manager presents:

1. Impact Summary (3-5 sentences). Your level, the level you are targeting, and your 2-3 strongest accomplishments with metrics. This becomes the opening of your manager's 1-pager.
2. Key Accomplishments (3-5 projects). Each structured as: result with metric, context (what problem and why it mattered), your role, and what you did. Explicitly cover all three circles of impact - individual, team, and broader.
3. Growth Mindset Evidence. Microsoft's culture emphasizes growth mindset. Include specific examples of how you sought feedback, learned from failures, tackled unfamiliar problems, or expanded your skill set.
4. Leadership and Mentoring. Even at individual contributor levels, evidence of growing others strengthens your case. Name specific people, specific growth areas, and specific outcomes.
5. Cross-Team Impact. For Level 63+ promotions, this is critical. Document every project where your work impacted a team other than your own. Include the names of the partner teams and the outcomes they achieved.
6. Security and AI Contributions. Given the 2024-2025 priority shifts, include any work related to security improvements or AI tool adoption. These are now explicitly evaluated.

5 Microsoft-Specific Mistakes That Block Promotions

Mistake 1: Writing a Thin Connect and Expecting Your Manager to Fill in the Gaps

Your manager may have 6-10 direct reports. They cannot track every detail of your work for the entire year. If your Connect is two paragraphs of generalities, your manager's 1-pager will be thin, and their argument at calibration will be weak.

Fix: Write your Connect as if it is a promotion packet. Include specific metrics, project names, partner teams, and outcomes. Give your manager so much material that their hardest job is choosing what to cut, not what to add.

Mistake 2: Focusing Only on Individual Output for Level 63+

The transition to Level 63 explicitly requires cross-group impact. If your Connect only describes your individual technical contributions - no matter how excellent - the calibration group will not see senior-level evidence.

Fix: For every major project, document the cross-team dimension. Which partner teams were involved? What did they gain from your work? How did you collaborate? If you do not have cross-team examples, this is a signal to seek out those opportunities now.

Mistake 3: Misunderstanding the Calibration Budget

The rewards budget is zero-sum within a calibration group. If your manager gives you more points, someone else gets fewer. This means your manager needs to justify your promotion not just in absolute terms, but relative to everyone else in the calibration session.

Fix: Make your case comparative. Help your manager understand what makes your impact distinct and clearly above your current level. "Here is what I delivered. Here is why it demonstrates the next level, not just excellence at the current one."

Mistake 4: Not Collecting Strong Peer Perspectives

Peer perspectives are a critical input into your manager's assessment. If you choose the wrong perspective providers, or if you do not give them enough context about your work, you get generic feedback that does not help.

Fix: Before perspectives are collected, reach out to your chosen providers. Remind them of the specific projects you collaborated on and what aspects of your work you would appreciate feedback on. You are not scripting their response - you are helping them remember the details that matter.

Mistake 5: Waiting Until June to Start Preparing

The Connect review in June feeds directly into calibration and August rewards. If you start writing your Connect in June, you have no time to address gaps, collect better perspectives, or align with your manager.

Fix: Treat Connect as a living document. Update it quarterly with key accomplishments and metrics. Have the explicit promotion conversation with your manager by January at the latest: "Am I on track? What does the calibration group need to see?"

Microsoft Promotion Timeline

• July (new fiscal year): Set goals aligned with your target promotion criteria. Have the promotion conversation with your manager.
• October-November: Mid-year Connect check-in. Review your progress. Collect early peer perspectives.
• January: Explicit promotion readiness conversation. "What gaps do I need to close before June?"
• April-May: Peer perspectives collected. Write your strongest Connect. Give your manager everything they need.
• June: Final Connect review. Manager creates 1-pagers. Calibration sessions begin.
• Late June to mid-August: Manager and leadership discussions, talent reviews, rewards allocation.
• August-September: You receive your rewards outcome. Promotions are communicated.

Key insight: By the time August arrives, it is far too late to affect the outcome. If there are surprises in your rewards, the gap was in earlier steps - your Connect, your perspectives, or your alignment with your manager.

What If You Were Passed Over

If you did not get promoted, have a direct conversation with your manager. Ask for specific feedback from the calibration discussion:

• "Impact was not differentiated enough" - Your work was good but did not clearly stand out in the calibration comparison. You need accomplishments that are unambiguously above your current level. Read our guide on what to do after being passed over.
• "Need more cross-team impact" - Your work was deep within your team but the calibration group did not see broader influence. Seek out cross-team projects.
• "Growth mindset evidence was thin" - Microsoft values demonstrating that you seek challenges outside your comfort zone. This feedback means your Connect focused too much on executing within your existing expertise.
• "Budget constraints" - Sometimes the answer is genuinely that there was not enough budget for all deserving promotions. This does not mean you should not prepare aggressively for the next cycle.

Putting It Together

Microsoft's promotion process is more manager-dependent than Google's or Amazon's. Your manager is the primary advocate, and the strength of their case at calibration depends entirely on the evidence you provide through Connect and the peer perspectives that support it.

The engineers who get promoted at Microsoft treat Connect as a promotion document, not a status report. They update it quarterly, align with their manager early, choose strategic peer perspective providers, and explicitly cover all three circles of impact. They understand that the rewards budget is zero-sum and their case needs to be differentiated, not just strong.

For the general promotion packet framework, read our complete guide to writing a promotion packet. For self-evaluation examples you can adapt for Connect, see our self-evaluation examples guide. For level comparisons across Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon, check the tech promotion levels guide. And if you work at Microsoft and want to build your promotion case now, visit the Microsoft promotion packet page for a guided walkthrough.