Just got my performance review and landed in the “meets expectations” category. It made me curious how companies actually differentiate between meets, exceeds, and below. At some places it seems like exceeds is limited to only a few people even if several people are performing at that level. Is there usually some kind of quota or forced distribution behind the scenes, or is it purely based on performance where you work? Feel free to share what rating you received too if you’re comfortable.

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Exceeds expectations is typically limited to the top 20%. Even if you are doing a great job, the impact on the overall cost or budget may not be significant enough to bump you in the top 20%. Take off your engineer hat, put on your business hat, and realize that raises and bonuses have set budgets. Not everyone can receive the max raise, even if they’re doing a great job. It’s not fiscally possible. And be honest and ask yourself, are you truly doing the best you can, above what someone else in your position wouldn’t also be doing? If you’re not a game changer, then it’s unlikely to get the top raise. A lot of people think “if I left, the company would be screwed”, the reality is everyone is replaceable and the teams will still be successful after some initial growing pains.

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Thanks for your insight. I get it and as I get older and longer and corporate. I start to understand why things are setup they way they are especially at scale.

I’ve been at “meets expectations” for the majority of my career. Which can be a sweet spot. You are expected to be steady, not overperform, but you also aren’t at the bottom of the pack. It doesn’t get crazy raises or bonuses, but my expectations have stayed consistent.

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I got that review before and 6 months later I got let go, mmmmmmmm...

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I’ve heard of people who got exceeds and they got let go at Intel!

Many organisations use limited “exceeds expectations” categories. Even when several people perform well, only a small percentage may receive that rating due to internal calibration systems.

Over the past few years our manager has set a "stretch objective" basically something harder and outside your usual responsibilities. If you achieve it, it's good justification for exceeds expectation. I quite like it this way.

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