The MM Network

[WRXtranceformed]

So, promotion time came and went for me and my manager pulled me aside to tell me I wouldn't be promoted like I was expecting. However, he refused to tell me why and made me wait 2 weeks for my annual review. The week before, they had me in multiple presentations showing how I had worn more performance awards than anyone else on my team and showed that I was spearheading some of our most difficult projects, etc,etc. Most of my team all agreed that I was completely shafted and some were outright mad for me.

I had my APR yesterday and my manager shared that the main reason they weren't promoting me was that I don't go "Above and beyond" like they expect and listed a few examples. One was where one of our most senior engineers left, leaving me as the sole SME on our two most difficult products to support. I had told my manager I'd like to be promoted to something beyond entry level if I had to take over his role. Another example was how I asked for additional compensation when they ADDED on call to my responsibilities after hiring me. On Call was not a thing when I was hired, but was added on to my team months after starting.

So, at the end of the meeting I shared with my manager that I didn't see a future for me on this team and that I wanted to switch to product management. I've reached out to a senior PM in the company who says they're interested in me and also have reached out to the recruiting team to hopefully get me out of this mess. I expressed to my manager that I would have really appreciated if they would have spoken to me to address issues they had that were going to stop me from being promoted instead of letting me crash and burn in their eyes and punish me by not promoting me. He spent the rest of the meeting explaining how my performance was just as good as senior engineers and also referred to me as one of his most "senior" multiple times.

I'm not leaving my team. I'm leaving my manager. What a shame.

Bummer man, that's super frustrating but that is indeed the corporate way of things.  One bad manager can cause a lot of ripple effect at a company.  I think you're making a smart move to switch to another team where your hard work is appreciated.  Don't let it get you down or discourage your hard work / extra effort. Nothing of what he said takes away from the accomplishments and experience you've earned so far.  Its just a bump in the road and you're taking the right path to pivot to another group, hopefully that will pay dividends.