| I'm a software developer with 20+ years of experience. I've been working at my current company for at least a few years. I recently found out that some of my colleagues that have been here for less time than I have, who have less experience than I do, got promoted ahead of me. Like you I also get good reviews during review time. I feel like I should be upset about this. After all, I do value recognition, and would like to see my work validated among my peers. However it would seem that skill and effort are not required to be promoted at my current company. And from experience this is a general truth: there will always be biases, social structures, etc to overcome. I am not entirely upset by it. I am already paid a lot of money and I'm not left wanting in life. I have few responsibilities at work which is great because I have lot at home (unlike you I do have dependents, a spouse, a mortgage, etc). A promotion would mean more responsibility and pressure along with the higher pay. And that's not going to make the work any more interesting or challenging in the ways I find satisfying. What would improve my life is having interesting work to do. Most of what I work on is extremely boring enterprise business-ware. I've given up being ambitious and working on interesting, challenging work because I'm more concerned and interested in my family and our well-being and my hobbies than I am in trying to change the world or prove anything. If, one day, this company does manage to exit and my options turn out to be valuable and I make a bunch of F-U money then it won't matter anyway. That's when I can loosen the collar and sit back and do my own thing. So my advice is: don't evaluate your life based on your job and its social hierarchies. Promotions, titles, etc are almost always bullshit in tech. Instead look at what you have and try to think about what it is that you need, what expectations are being missed and make a move that will improve the quality of your life. If you have enough money to survive for six months with a tight budget maybe you're in the right place to start your own company? Maybe you can take time off to dedicate time to a side project you find fulfilling? On the flip side, maybe starting a new hobby is the way to go and just clock in/out at work. Chasing promotions is hard work and perhaps the benefits are not that valuable to you. |