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Ask HN: How long did you wait it out at your job for promotion?

by a_lifters_life on 1/27/23, 2:09 PM with 2 comments

• by 65286224 on 1/27/23, 2:43 PM

  Current level is Staff but my promotion to Principal is just waiting on paperwork. (this is from a F2F with my skip who is a director level and it has already been presented and accepted in the 2 levels above them (VP and CTO))

  I have been working as a developer for over 30 years. At a previous company, I waited for ~5 years at Senior but due to shuffling started over with different bosses multiple times. I spent 1.5 years with the last boss and got passed over again (the company had weird rules about team composition and I missed out due to others getting promotions)

  I left that job and stayed at Senior for ~1 year and then got bumped to Staff. Left after another year and started Staff at current company. Been here 1.5 years and like the first sentence indicated, I am on the cusp of Principal.

  Thoughts about your situation:

  Are you talking to your boss about your desire to move up?

  What are they saying about what they want to see from you to get that promotion?

  Do you have regular checkins to gauge your progress?

  Are you given projects that let you demonstrate competence that warrants a promotion?

  Does your company have a promotion ladder that matches your career goals? (e.g. I worked for a very long time at a company where the only thing above Senior is a management position.)

  Is your current boss/supervisor 'weak' among their peers?

  You need a boss that will:

  1. give you good projects

  2. get your name in the ear of their peers because your skip depends consensus from their directs for promotions and raises.

  3. is tough enough to fight for a warranted promotion

  So 'waiting' is the wrong way to phrase it, IMO. If you want it, you have work for it and play the game. Not that I think that playing the game is better than being good at your job and deserving of a bump. Depending on the company is most likely required.

  Also remember that titles at different companies can differ wildly in scope and skill. I have interviewed candidates with high titles that were not level appropriate for our company. Likewise, my title might not fly at a different company.

• by frakt0x90 on 1/27/23, 2:40 PM

  When I was a data scientist, my boss told me a promotion was in the works for a year before I stopped believing him and left. I'm now a Sr ML Engineer. It's a megacorp so I was willing to believe budgets had to be approved and HR paperwork filled out. Over a year is excessive though.

  Similarly, I was once told I could have a promotion if I promised to stay for a year. I declined and found a better job within a month. Same company.