The Uncomfortable Truth About Promotions
Here is a pattern that plays out in companies every day: two people with similar skills and similar tenure are up for promotion. One gets it, the other doesn't. The person who doesn't get promoted usually assumes the system is broken or political. Sometimes it is. But more often, the person who got promoted did something the other person didn't — they managed the promotion process as deliberately as they managed their work.
Promotions are not automatic rewards for doing your current job well. Doing your job well is the baseline. Promotions go to people who demonstrate they're already operating at the next level and who make sure the people making the decision can see it.
That's not cynical — it's practical. If you're waiting to be "discovered" and promoted purely on merit, you might wait a long time. The people who get promoted consistently do three things: they do impactful work, they make that work visible, and they have direct conversations about their career progression.
Understand How Promotions Actually Work
Before you build your case, understand the mechanics. Most companies have some version of this process:
- Manager nominates the employee (or the employee raises it)
- Evidence is gathered — performance reviews, peer feedback, accomplishments
- Calibration meeting — managers across the department discuss candidates and compare them
- Decision is made — usually by your manager's manager or a leadership group
The critical insight: your manager is your advocate in that calibration meeting, but they're advocating alongside other managers who are pushing for their own people. Your manager needs ammunition. They need specific, concrete examples of why you deserve a promotion — and those examples need to be compelling enough to win a comparison against other candidates they've never met.
If your manager walks into that meeting with "They're really great and work really hard," you're not getting promoted. If they walk in with "They led the platform migration that saved us $200K annually, mentored two junior engineers, and they're already doing the work of a senior engineer," that's a different conversation.
Do Work That Matters to the Business
Not all work is equally valued when it comes to promotions. There's a difference between work that keeps things running and work that moves things forward. Both are necessary, but the latter gets promoted.
High-Visibility, High-Impact Work
This is the work that directly ties to company goals, involves cross-functional collaboration, and produces measurable results. Examples:
- Leading a project that generates revenue or reduces costs
- Building something new that the company ships to customers
- Solving a problem that leadership has explicitly identified as a priority
Necessary but Invisible Work
This is the maintenance work, the glue work, the behind-the-scenes effort that keeps the team functioning. Examples: fixing bugs, updating documentation, onboarding new hires, running recurring meetings.
This work is essential. But if it's the only work you do, you'll be seen as a reliable contributor — not a leader. The move is to do both: handle the invisible work efficiently, and carve out bandwidth for high-impact projects.
If you find yourself consistently drowning in maintenance work with no time for high-impact projects, that's a conversation to have with your manager. Frame it as: "I want to make sure I'm contributing to the team's biggest priorities. Can we look at my workload and figure out where I can take on more strategic work?"
Make Your Work Visible
This is where many competent people get stuck. They do excellent work and assume someone will notice. That assumption is wrong about 80% of the time.
Visibility doesn't mean self-promotion. It means making it easy for decision-makers to see what you've accomplished. Here are concrete ways to do that:
Document Everything
Keep a running log of your accomplishments. Update it weekly. When promotion time comes, you'll have months of material instead of trying to remember what you did in Q1.
Weekly accomplishment log template:
Date: [Week of MM/DD]
Project: [Name]
What I did: [Specific action]
Result: [Outcome or metric]
Who was involved: [Stakeholders, collaborators]
This takes 5 minutes per week and saves hours when you need to build your promotion case, update your resume, or prepare for a performance review.
Share Updates Proactively
Send your manager a brief weekly or biweekly update. Three to five bullet points covering what you shipped, what you're working on, and any blockers. This isn't busywork — it ensures your manager has current information about your contributions, especially if they manage a large team and can't track everyone's work in real time.
Present Your Work
Volunteer to present project outcomes to the broader team or to leadership. A 10-minute demo or post-mortem presentation puts your work in front of people who influence promotion decisions. It also develops the communication skills that are part of every "next level" job description.
Build Cross-Team Relationships
People outside your immediate team who know your work become additional data points in your favor. When your manager is in a calibration meeting and says "They led the integration with the marketing team," it helps if the marketing team lead in the room nods and says "Yeah, they were great to work with."
Have the Direct Conversation
Most people hint at wanting a promotion. Few people directly ask for one. The direct approach works better.
Schedule a dedicated meeting with your manager — not as part of a regular 1:1, but as a focused career conversation. Here's how to structure it:
Step 1: State Your Goal
"I'd like to talk about my path to [next level / specific title]. I want to understand what it takes to get there and make sure I'm focusing on the right things."
Step 2: Ask for the Criteria
"What does someone at that level look like on our team? What are the specific expectations and competencies?"
This is critical. Many companies have leveling guides or promotion rubrics. If yours does, get a copy. If it doesn't, your manager's verbal description becomes your roadmap.
Step 3: Present Your Case (or Identify Gaps)
If you believe you're already meeting the criteria: "Based on our conversation and my recent work, here are the areas where I think I'm already operating at that level." Then walk through 3-4 specific examples with results.
If you're not there yet: "It sounds like I need to demonstrate more of [X]. Can we identify a project or opportunity where I can develop that over the next quarter?"
Step 4: Set a Timeline
"When is the next promotion cycle, and what do I need to have in place by then?"
Without a timeline, the conversation becomes aspirational. With a timeline, it becomes a plan.
The Promotion-Ready Checklist
Before you ask for a promotion, make sure you can check these boxes:
| Criteria | Question to Ask Yourself |
|---|---|
| Performance | Am I consistently exceeding expectations in my current role? |
| Next-level work | Am I already doing work at the level I'm asking to be promoted to? |
| Impact | Can I point to 3-4 specific results with measurable outcomes? |
| Visibility | Do the people who make promotion decisions know about my work? |
| Feedback | Have I received positive peer and stakeholder feedback recently? |
| Manager alignment | Does my manager know I want this promotion and support it? |
| Criteria fit | Do I meet the documented (or informal) criteria for the next level? |
If you can't check all of these, you've identified what to work on. That's valuable information.
What to Do If You Get Passed Over
Getting passed over for a promotion stings. But your response matters more than the decision itself.
Don't: Shut down, disengage, or start quietly job searching out of resentment.
Do: Ask for specific, actionable feedback. "I'd like to understand what I need to do differently to be ready for the next cycle. Can you walk me through the specific areas where I fell short?"
Listen to the feedback with genuine curiosity, not defensiveness. Then build a plan to address it. If the feedback is vague ("You just need more experience"), push for specifics: "Can you give me an example of what that experience would look like?"
If you receive the feedback, address it, and still get passed over in the next cycle, that's a signal. It might mean the company doesn't have room for you to grow, the promotion criteria are moving targets, or the decision is political rather than merit-based. At that point, looking externally isn't resentment — it's a rational response to data.
The Promotion Timeline Most People Underestimate
Getting promoted isn't a single conversation. It's a campaign that takes 3-6 months of deliberate effort:
- Months 1-2: Understand the criteria, identify gaps, align with your manager on a development plan
- Months 2-4: Do the work. Take on high-impact projects, build visibility, document results
- Month 4-5: Present your case to your manager with specific evidence
- Month 5-6: Your manager advocates for you in the promotion cycle
Starting the conversation three weeks before the promotion cycle begins is too late. The work of getting promoted happens long before the decision is made.
Sources
- Harvard Business Review: How to Ask for a Promotion — Research on promotion dynamics and the importance of self-advocacy in career advancement
- SHRM: Developing Employee Career Paths and Ladders — Employer-side perspective on how companies structure promotion criteria and career ladders
- Forbes: Why Most People Don't Get Promoted — Analysis of the most common barriers to promotion and how to overcome them
Keep Your Resume Ready for What's Next
Whether you're building your case for an internal promotion or positioning yourself for a better opportunity elsewhere, an up-to-date resume is essential. Superpower Resume helps you capture your accomplishments, quantify your impact, and present your experience at the level you're aiming for — so you're always prepared for the next step.
