Comment by StevePrefontain

I don’t think this is universal advice. I’m also a staff engineer and had to ask to get promoted to senior and staff level. Yes, you have to actually be doing good work and operating at that level as you say, but promotion culture has enormous variance. Sometimes you have to advocate for yourself. A mentor of mine was a VP of Engineering at mid-size companies for ~20 years and told me that he never got a promotion he didn’t ask for.