To feel pressure to get promoted?

[smashin]

In my industry, you can’t get an internal promotion. If a vacancy is free, it’s open to anyone to apply for online including external candidates. Good performance doesn’t lead to a direct promotion - there’s no pay rises or development pathways.

I’ve been in my job for 2 years and earn £28k. I have:

-led 2 areas on top of my normal duties including networking with senior staff, improving metrics, line management etc

-deputised for my manager, carrying out their job for months

-have training in data analytics(relevant)

-scored highly in written applications & interview feedback

Yet I still can’t secure a new promotion on application. What more can I do to push myself? I think my biggest hurdle is the interview stage. Ultimately I can’t really afford life as a single person that privately rents and my current job isn’t fulfilling so the pressure is on and it’s getting me down. I feel like I can’t enjoy life until I leave this job.

can you move up if you change jobs? There is no point staying in a job with no room to move up.

I have been applying, had 5 interviews recently for promotion roles:

Waiting to hear back for 2.

Successful but on a wait list for 1.

Unsuccessful for 2 although feedback was positive. It’s odd when you think an interview goes well but clearly it’s not well enough. Properly makes me overthink the small things to see what the issue is!

It might take time. Hopefully the perfect job is out there.

Civil service?

I left in the end... got sick of promotions going to people with less experience who knew nothing about the area but were good at selling how they were great "leaders". 🤮 Being excellent at your job and a great candidate for the next level up because of knowledge and experience counted for nothing. In fact it went against you because in spending time achieving professional excellence I wasn't "developing my leadership competencies" aka learning to bullshit.

Oh it's not just the civil service where recruiters are taken in by bullshit "leaders" spending all their time in networking, personal visibility, and sycophancy while ignoring, even despising, the people who actually do the work.

Over the years I've come to the conclusion it's not what you do that gets you promoted, it's what you tell other people you do.

I'm now too old and jaded to even want to attempt to get promoted any more but I can't pretend it isn't galling when 23 year olds with a fraction of my skill and experience (let alone life experience) get parachuted in to jobs 5 grades above me and then proceed to wreck the joint. Still, I'm sure I knew everything when I was that age too....

Civil service?

yes unfortunately! I agree that a lot of people are out of their depth at work. crying and shouting/swearing when things don’t go as planned. Blindly doing things against HR guidance then backtracking. Lack of common sense etc. For successful candidates, the expectation is you can do the job already so there’s no training involved in how to do the job properly…

To improve my interview technique is it better to see it as more of a pitch of my leadership skills?

To be honest I hate the people I work with so haven’t really been networking in-house or being super visible which might be backfiring.

Could it be internal sabotage by your line manager as you’re so useful already, and on your lower salary, and they don’t want to lose that? Bit cynical maybe but it happened to me. I was raging.

@Doesthepopeshitinthewoods woah what did they do? That’s awful

my manager isn’t senior enough to have a say in the hiring process. But I do think senior managers might be able to sway things!

Have you considered using an external company that specialises in CS interview prep? Just to make sure your application is okay and you’re saying the right things to get points during the interview. Or perhaps you have someone already in a more senior role that could mentor you through the process?

If you’re not getting the jobs then you’re not giving them what they want during the interview so you need to address it.

I'd be definitely looking to leave rather than promotion, you're likely to achieve a bigger jump in pay that way as well.

My manager was asked for a feedback/reference after my (third?) round of interviews. I was told I was pretty much a shoe-in, but that was where it skidded to a halt. I was told my internal feedback wasn’t what they were looking for and would say no more. It eventually came out that she had given negative feedback, though I never learned exactly what. I requested meetings to discuss it, which she avoided, and I even eventually found out it came down to how much of her job I was doing. She didn’t want to lose that. It destroyed my chance and my faith in the awful company, so I left.

Wholeheartedly agree with some of these posts. I've worked in a number of places where being able to do the job well is irrelevant. Being able to bullshit and use the latest management speak to sound like you are some great leader gets you far. I'd say 95% of the managers I have had have been less competent than those they manage. Basically you need to become a salesperson to get anywhere. Being modest and good at your job won't get you anywhere unfortunately