What Most People Miss About Getting Promoted – By Yue Zhao
by yuezhao on 2/2/2026, 9:18:09 AM
https://news.theuncommonexecutive.com/p/what-most-people-miss-about-getting
Comments
by: GuB-42
Also: do you want a promotion or just a raise?<p>A promotion means you are getting a different job, typically leadership, which means working with people more with machines. If you are better with machines than you are with people, do you really want that? does your employer really wants that? If you are twice as fast and twice as good as others doing some job, and if you like that job, what you want is double pay, not a promotion to a position you won't be as good at.<p>That's Peter's principle, and your managers have heard about it too.
2/2/2026, 10:16:42 AM
by: Quothling
Is this an USA thing? I know I left the management track, but in my world, promotions is something you ask for and then you figure out how to get them, and then you... well get them. Like if an IT support guy wants to get into sysadmin, they will then plan it with their manager. Usually this means they'll work to get some sort of related certificate and then once they get it, they'll move into a role that suits their new abilities. Sometimes they'll need to "level up" their abilities a few times before they completely leave support, but they'll get there as quick as possible. If you don't they'll just leave for another company.<p>I guess this article is for the management track?
2/2/2026, 10:11:44 AM
by: Maro
Promotions are always discussed in the context of "How to get promoted?". In my opinion, an important angle is left out of these discussion and conversations: do you really want to get promoted? is it worth it?<p>To make it simple binary, I think there are 2 kinds of promotions:<p>A. the kind where you pretty much continue doing what you were doing before, but with a nicer title and more money<p>B. the kind where the new role will put you into a whole new situation, which may or may not be a good fit for you<p>People always assume it'll be like 1., but there are certain career inflection points where this is not true. Approximating these in 3 minutes of typing:<p>1. Going from junior IC levels (where others work extra hard to support you, and are doing much of the work with you, for you) to mid IC levels.<p>2. Going from IC to becoming a manager.<p>3. Going to executive level.<p>4. Going to board-level executive level.<p><i>Note: I'm putting aside the handful of tech companies where people can stay on the technical track and still get ahead; at most companies you end up going into management, if for no other reason to avoid an incompetent outside hire to end up as your boss..</i><p>In the above list, 1. is of course undesirable and unavoidable, but the rest should be thought over hard, for many months, and should be considered a major life decision.<p>Eg. recently I'v been promoted from Sr. Director (a non-executive management role) to VP (an executive manager role) — I didn't ask for it, it was a result of a re-org — and it's been super tough. Completely new rules, new crowd, new worries, but with all the worries of my old job..<p>As a people manager I constantly have staff ICs telling me they want to get promoted to become a Director, and I always tell them — from the bottom of my heart — enjoy the "simple life" of IC-ship while you can, once you go over to management [at any bigco], things will be much less fun. Because, if coding and building things is fun for you, then managing PIPs, procurements, vendor engagements, and corporate politics in general will not be fun.
2/2/2026, 10:32:15 AM
by: g947o
I used to care about all these stuff and work hard towards "the next level". Guess what? Nothing happened, despite multiple people told me they think I did way more than what a promotion requires.<p>So I stop giving it any attention. Promote me if you want, but otherwise I'm just going to jump ship to a place that recognizes my talent.
2/2/2026, 10:51:53 AM
by: EZ-E
> Businesses don’t do promotions at senior levels because you “deserve” it. They promote those who have the highest potential to deliver outsized impact and value.<p>What I've seen more of is: people get promoted because they already do the job at the higher level, or close to it
2/2/2026, 10:09:59 AM
by: reddec
In my experience, promotion depends on: (a) is cheaper (including on boarding) to fire and hire or pay more, (b) will it cause domino effect so others will also ask for promotions, (c) will employee find an offer outside (matter of personal traits and market conditions).<p>Personal performance and achievements are usually secondary.<p>YMMV
2/2/2026, 11:00:40 AM
by: physicsguy
The massive missing factor here is personality.<p>You can be the most impactful person going but if you are an asshole then you won't get promoted.<p>Edit: maybe I should say - an asshole to management, or bring up difficult things, etc.
2/2/2026, 10:10:24 AM
by: palata
> Businesses don’t do promotions at senior levels because you “deserve” it. They promote those who have the highest potential to deliver outsized impact and value.<p>I guess it will sound like a nitpick, but to me it matters a lot:<p>They promote those <i>they believe</i> have the highest potential to bring value.<p>The whole thing is that the person who promotes you is a human in a dominant position. You can't change their mind about what they believe is a good reason to promote an employee, because they are in a position to feel superior.<p>If you want a promotion, you have to do whatever those with that power want to see in order to give you a promotion. If that involves bringing doughnuts every Monday morning, you have to do it.<p>Luckily, cargo cult means that those people probably all read the same kind of books, so a valid proxy may be to just read those books and try to fit in this completely arbitrary world. Coaches are people who decided that instead of reading those books to try and get a promotion themselves, they would just make a business out of reading those books and selling you that knowledge.
2/2/2026, 9:32:31 AM
by: tupac_speedrap
Honestly, I've never known any company that has a good promotion and career development structure. Most shoehorn you into management roles or force you to jump through hoops to get a promotion so nowadays I don't care as long as I get a decent salary, 33 days of annual leave and they let me take off 3 weeks to go to Japan every year
2/2/2026, 11:09:51 AM
by: d--b
The real promotion is when you get out of this corporate bullshit.<p>So glad I don't have to deal with any of that crap anymore.
2/2/2026, 10:33:51 AM
by: Reimersholme
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2/2/2026, 11:04:08 AM