Why you're not getting promoted
Promotions are not based on tenure - Just because you have 10 years on a job does not mean you should be promoted. Promotions depends on your contributions. Coworkers with 1-2 years on the job might be getting promoted. If you are not getting promoted, speak to your manager about why. Don't be afraid to have a honest conversation with him.
Take credit for your work - You're not taking credit for your work. If someone compliments your work, take it! Don't make your contributions seem small. Make sure your boss knows how important your contributions are.
Bosses don't read minds - Some people don't want to get promoted because it might be too much work. If you want to get promoted, let your boss know. He can't read your mind!
You need to demonstrate leadership skills - Getting promoted means overseeing and managing others. You will need effective leadership skills. You should try to gain these leadership skills to get promoted.
Analyzing past performance reviews - Just because they give you positive performance reviews does not mean you will get promoted. If you are getting good reviews and still not getting promoted, speak to your boss about why.
Responding to feedback - Make sure you are open to constructive criticism and not getting defensive when someone gives you feedback. You don't want to seem like you'e difficult to work with. Being receptive to criticism is important for growth.
Staying in your comfort zone - You're not challenging yourself. Maybe you're doing enough for your role. You need to take on more challenges and go above and beyond to get promoted. Show your boss that you're indispensable.
Do you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below?
8 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 27.5 ms ] threadI wonder if this is really just the key reason here. Perhaps everything else here just revolves around that. e.g. people being defensive with feedback and not analyzing perf reviews because they don't actually want to grow.
A secondary reason is that promotions are usually at odds with maintaining your boss's position in the status hierarchy.
> Maybe you're doing enough for your role. You need to take on more challenges and go above and beyond to get promoted
"Do extra work for free hoping you will be rewarded later."
Probably 95% of people go into companies with zero idea of office politics. I sure didn't when I started.
What I have found is that people either 1) say that they hate office politics so they ignore it, 2) they pick the wrong "friends"
The first reasons is obvious why people don't get promoted.
The second reason is that people look at work as an extension of their social life, instead of as a job. I'll go into this.
One has to realize that a job is not for friendship, it is for work. If you had a billion dollars, you wouldn't even be in that job in the first place in order to make "friends." Because it's a fucking job. Everyone you meet should be "business associates." Now, I know someone is going to say, "Yeah, but I met my best friend of 20 years at my first job." Every time. Well, all I can say is that this is NOT about you. So what if you did. I didn't. Many others don't. Again, this is about getting promotions, not about making friends. Make friends outside of work. It's just as easy. I don't care about how you make friends at work. It's immaterial. I'm trying to relate how to get promoted at a job and not talk about your social life. If you want to discuss that, let's start another completely different conversation on reddit or something.
Probably the biggest mistake that many people starting a job will go into the job and the first person who comes up to them and is friendly is now a "friend." And they get into that "clique."
What one should do is not to become "friends" with the first person friendly to them. I'm not saying you shouldn't be friendly to all, it is very important that one is friendly to everyone. No gossip, no backstabbing, none of that evil shit.
So when you start a new job, look around. Figure shit out. Find out who the "power-players" are. This is not difficult if you are aware.
Once you figure that out, then you develop deeper business relationships with those people, just like you would anyone else. You want visibility with them for long-term success.
I've done this many times and have been plucked from obscurity. You start rising through the company fast, because first, everyone knows you are associated closely with powerful people and nobody wants to fuck with you, they want to be nice because they want you to say nice things about them to powerful people in the business. And if you get along with the powerful person, that person will start telling other powerful people about "keep an eye on this person" kinda shit, and they all become aware of you. It's how it works. It truly is.
Now, if you piss off a powerful person at the start, probably can expect your career will be less than ideal at that company.
As far as your immediate boss goes, you have to know exactly what they want and get it done. If they change your priorities every week, and you don't like that, too bad. You do what they say. End of story, your personal preferences are not important. The #1 goal is to get promoted out of there anyways, so it is just a temporary thing anyways. So that part of office politics "brown-nosing" is correct, but it is just one tactic in the overall goal, and a minor tactic at that.
Another super tactic is to write and public speak. If you do this, you become an "industry expert." It doesn't matter if you speak on arcane shit in your industry, or basic stuff, it is unimportant. The important part is to write and speak to the public. I know one guy that does public speaking a few times a week - to small and large groups. It doesn't matter.
One time I spoke at a small group of 25 people in an obscure technical conference. As a speaker, everyone wants to talk to you after your t...