When you don’t get the promotion you wanted, it’s important to assess your company and yourself so you can improve your odds in the future.
If you’re not getting promoted at work, it can be frustrating and even disheartening. When you don’t land that role you wanted, what should you do? Should you position yourself for a promotion in the future or start job hunting?
To determine your next steps, it’s important to assess your employer and yourself, according to Porschia Parker-Griffin, founder and CEO of Fly High Coaching.
Assess Your Organization, Including Its Promotion History
The reason you’re not getting promoted at work could be more about your company than you, starting with how your organization fills open roles.
“One of the first things that I tell our clients to do is assess if you’re in the right organization to get promoted in the first place,” Parker-Griffin told BioSpace. “Does that company’s culture include promoting internally—having a preference for doing that? Is their recruiting strategy tied into that, or is their recruiting strategy that they want to go poach people from other companies and try to bring that competitive advantage to their organization?”
Company size can also be a factor in not getting promoted at work. Parker-Griffin has found that life sciences clients in general can have an easier time landing a promotion at a larger organization because there are more opportunities and roles available.
That said, situational factors can affect companies of all sizes and, therefore, your chance of getting promoted.
Is your company growing? Is it expanding? Are there plans to acquire a new company or merge with another one? Is your firm adding new products or service lines? Those are all clues that I tell our clients to look for to let you know that there might be more promotional opportunities available in the future.
If your company has a history of promoting internally and is doing well, Parker-Griffin said it makes sense to position yourself for a future promotion. To help do that, she recommended assessing yourself so you can identify areas for improvement.
Assess Yourself, Including Your Reputation
A good first step for self-assessment is asking your manager for feedback about why you’re not getting promoted at work. Parker-Griffin recommended requesting that input directly in a nonaccusatory, positive way. She said to come from a standpoint of wanting to know how you can be a more compelling candidate in the future.
Parker-Griffin also advised doing some detective work once you find out who got the role you wanted. Check their LinkedIn profile.
“See if you can see their resume,” Parker-Griffin said. “Get an idea of their qualifications, their skills, their knowledge, and compare that to your background, your skills, your knowledge. Sometimes, you can find insight on how to develop that way as well.”
It’s also important to look at your most recent performance reviews, according to Parker-Griffin. What results have you produced?
“This is where you really have to be honest with yourself,” Parker-Griffin said. “Have you been an average performer, a below-average performer, an above-average performer or an excellent performer? Sometimes, I find people haven’t done that. They really just think, ‘I’ve been in a place for X amount of time. One year, two years, five years, 10 years. They should promote me.’ And most companies don’t work just based on tenure anymore.”
You should also consider your reputation at the company, according to Parker-Griffin. Be self-aware of how people perceive you.
How mindful are you of how you’re showing up at work, how you’re communicating, how you’re handling conflict with other people? You want to be seen as a go-to person. You want to be seen as a leader to get promoted in most instances. That will help people kind of naturally think about you for promotions.
Parker-Griffin cautioned against having a mindset that keeping your head down and doing great work is enough to get you promoted. Your accomplishments need to be visible.
“Other people have to know the great things that you’re doing, the impact that you’re making and ultimately the results that you and your team are having,” she said.
Deciding If It’s Time to Leave
If your company doesn’t have a history of promoting internally, you have a good reputation and you do above average if not excellent work, Parker-Griffin said going to another organization might be the best way to get a better title and salary. You would not be alone in changing employers to advance your career, according to the new BioSpace Job Market Trends report. It found that the top reason employed and contract workers are job hunting is they want more growth opportunities (64%).
That said, jumping to another company because you’re not getting promoted at work could be tricky in today’s job market. Biopharma layoffs are continuing, leading to plenty of competition for open positions. According to BioSpace data, there were 25% fewer jobs posted live on the website for the second quarter of 2024 than the same quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, the job response rate—the percentage of people applying to positions after viewing them—increased almost 1%, from 14.6% to 15.3%.
In addition, Parker-Griffin noted she’s seen people jump to other companies only to find their new employers are less financially secure than their previous ones, leading to them being in the job market again after a year or two.
After considering all of that, if you decide to stay with your employer and go after a future promotion despite your organization shying away from internal promotions, Parker-Griffin noted she often tells clients in this situation to test the market, get other offers and use that as leverage to get promoted.
Not Getting Promoted at Work? You Have to Earn It
When it comes to not getting promoted at work, Parker-Griffin emphasized that nobody is owed a promotion. You must earn it.
“Just because you work somewhere for a set number of years does not mean that they have to promote you,” she noted. “So, you’ve got to go back to that self-awareness and being very honest with yourself, your performance, what you have done and what you have contributed to the organization. I do think that sometimes people forget that part.”
Interested in more career insights? Subscribe to Career Insider to receive our quarterly life sciences job market reports, career advice and more.
