You’re doing everything right… so why aren’t you moving up?

Stop waiting for recognition. Promotions happen when the business needs a role filled, not when you've earned it. Here's how to create the need.

Nov 18, 2025

👋 Hey, it’s Stephane. I share lessons, and stories from my journey to help you lead with confidence as an Engineering Manager. To accelerate your growth see: 50 Notion Templates | The EM’s Field Guide | CodeCrafters | Get Hired as an EM | 1:1 Coaching

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I watched a senior engineer on my team nail every project for eighteen months straight. Technically brilliant, mentored other engineers, and was super efficient with his work, which moved revenue metrics. I really had no complaints about him. His performance review was stellar.

As we were talking about this with him, he asked me:

What is stopping me from getting a promotion to Staff?

And that was a question that, as his manager, I had raised with my leadership too. In my eyes, he was absolutely ready for it and deserved it.

The answer I kept getting back was that there is no “organisational need” for another Staff Engineer in our org.

Over time, I realised that there are many things we’ve been told about promotions that are not quite true and would like to share with you what I’ve learnt over the last 7 years as a manager.

Performance

Here’s what we tell people: “Work hard, deliver results, and you’ll get promoted.”

And you know what? That’s mostly true early in your career. Junior to Senior level.

But something changes as you climb higher.

The pyramid narrows. There are fewer roles available. Your company might need twenty senior engineers but only three staff engineers. Maybe one principal. Definitely only one CTO.

Companies promote when they have a business need for someone at that level, not when you’ve earned it through your performance. Your readiness stops being the main factor. Organisational structure becomes the bottleneck.

I know this sounds cynical, but it’s true.

Headcount is roughly 70% of most company’s operating expenses. Promotions aren’t just recognition - they’re major financial decisions tied to workforce planning, budget cycles, and organizational restructuring.

Your manager might think you’re amazing. Your peers might agree you’re operating at the next level. It doesn’t matter if there’s no slot in the org chart.

The job you’re ready for might not exist.

Budgets

There is typically a fixed budget allocated for promotion cycles within the company.

Let’s say your company decides they can afford ten promotions this end of year across all departments. Engineering gets three slots. Product gets two. Sales gets five.

You’re performing at the next level. There’s an open position on the org chart. You tick every box on the promotion rubric.

You still might not get promoted.

Why? Because you’re competing against every other promotion candidate in the company for those three engineering slots.

I’ve been in the room where these decisions happen. I’ve had to defend why my team member deserves one of those slots over someone else’s team member.

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Visibility

You can’t promote yourself by just being excellent at your job.

Promotions need endorsers outside your immediate team. That means you need visibility with senior people who have zero reason to care about you. You need to manufacture opportunities to work with level +2 or +3 staff on cross-functional projects.

I’ve seen engineers who were technically superior get passed over for promotion because they stayed in their lane and delivered. Meanwhile, someone less capable but more visible got it because they worked on a project with the VP of Engineering.

You need to:

Be great at your job AND make sure the right people know about it.

“Prove It First”

Most tech companies only promote people who are already performing at the next level.

You’re expected to do the next-level job without the title, pay, or authority - often for 6 to 12 months - to “prove” you can handle it.

Let me be clear about what this means: you work at a senior level while being paid at a mid level. You take on staff engineer responsibilities while not having staff engineer leverage. You do the job before they give you the job.

And even then, bigger companies won’t promote you unless you’re “ready beyond any shadow of a doubt across all areas”.

Your Manager is your salesperson

During calibrations across teams, your work doesn’t speak for itself. Your manager speaks for it.

Depending on the company promotion decisions can come down to how effectively a manager can sell their report to peers and leadership. The manager with a “tongue of gold” gets their people promoted.

This is deeply unfair. It means your promotion chances depend more on your manager’s political skills than your performance.

That’s why I always advocate for making your manager’s life as easy as possible and having everything they need available in order to support your promotion case. It’s mostly their responsibility, but why rely solely on them when you can increase your chances by doing some of that work yourself?

Timing

Many companies only do promotions once per year. If you miss that window by a month, you’ll have to wait almost a year to try again.

Let’s say you become “promotion-ready” in month 2 of a 12-month cycle. That means you’re doing next-level work for ten months without next-level compensation. The company gets your elevated output at a discount.

Some companies have “off-cycle” promotions for people who just missed the window. But these are exceptions, not the rule. And using them requires your manager to fight through extra bureaucracy.

What do you do with all this?

Understand the scope. Impact, scope, and leadership matter for promotions. If your role doesn’t have enough scope, you need to either expand it or move to a role with bigger scope. Waiting for scope to come to you guarantees stagnation.

Manufacture visibility. Find ways to work with senior people outside your team. Cross-functional projects. Working groups. Anything that puts your work in front of decision-makers.

Get your manager on your side. Ask them directly: “What do you need from me to fight for my promotion in the next cycle?” Make it easy for them to sell you. Write your own promotion packet if you have to.

Time it right. Understand your company’s promotion cycles. Don’t expect a promotion two months before the annual review if that’s when decisions happen.

Know when to leave. Sometimes the fastest promotion is switching companies. If there’s no organisational need for someone at your level, no amount of performance will create one.

Once you understand these things, you can play the game more effectively. You can stop wondering why your excellent work isn’t translating to advancement. You can make strategic moves instead of just hoping someone notices.

You’re not crazy for feeling frustrated. The system can be frustrating. But at least now you know what you’re actually dealing with.