nobody warns you about this. you spend months doing the work, your manager says you're ready, and then you walk into calibration and some skip-level you've never met says "I'm not sure I've seen enough signal" and that's it. deferred.
the thing my manager eventually explained: your manager is your advocate but they can only do so much if the room doesn't know your name. the fix is uncomfortable. you need visibility with people above your manager before calibration season, not after. one good "present your project to the broader group" slot three months out is worth more than a stack of compliments in your skip-level intro.
also: know who's in the room. literally ask your manager who attends calibration for your level. then think about whether any of them have seen your work or your name this cycle. if the answer is mostly no, you have a problem.
4 replies
careerveteran
this is accurate and undersaid. calibration is a coalition sport. your manager is one vote. if the room doesn't have independent evidence of your impact, you're asking them to take someone else's word for it, and they won't.
staff_steph
exactly. and the cruel part is that after a deferral, everyone says "just keep doing what you're doing." the real advice is: do what you're doing, but louder.
firsttime_mgr
as a new manager going through my first calibration cycle from the other side: this is terrifying to watch. I had two reports I thought were clearly ready and I went in underprepared on one of them. the room asked questions I should have had data for. she got deferred. I still feel bad about it.
jordan_pm
same dynamic in PM calibration btw. your PM lead has to sell your impact to a room of other PM leads. if they can't point to an outcome you owned, not a project you were on but an outcome, the conversation stalls fast.