[kat]

I'm in the same position as you. Here's a couple of things I've learnt in the last few months.

1. Tell everyone what you want and ask them for their thoughts I had avoided telling a few people because I thought it was too forward of me, that they already knew, and a few other excuses. Now that everyone (my team mates, my direct manager, other managers) know what I'm aiming for I'm getting a lot more feedback on my performance. Also I suspect some people are fighting for my promotion know that they know I want it. I kickstarted the effort with "catchup" meetings with everyone I could think of. I framed it as a "catchup" so I could also find out what challenges they were facing and how I could help them. I talked to QA leads, PMs and senior devs on my team and outside of my team. The few coworkers who were really excited for me, I asked if I could do recurring 1:1s with them. It keeps me visible to these people and I'm getting regular feedback on my work and the status of my promotion.

2. If someone says you will not be promoted, ask why and ask different people. I was told I would not promoted and I didn't fight it. But a month later someone else informed me of course I'm getting promoted but not until the beginning of the calendar year. I wish I had asked more questions when I was originally told no promotion would happen, it would have saved me a lot of upset/confusion/unhappiness.

3. Ask your departing manager to recommend your promotion to the director