Internal promotion ...are they taking the p

I'm in a senior/lead position within the engineering team of a large software company. Where internal promotions are concerned, the company expect you to have been fulfilling the tasks and responsibilities of that role for several months before you are formally promoted. The rationale is that you get a chance to sample the new role and see if you like it and the company then find out if you'll be able to do the job to the standard they require.

I did initially have the "you want me to do a job for free?" query for my Manager but then found out that it's actually the norm in most companies and surprisingly, it takes significantly longer (in my company) for an internal promotion to be ratified than it does to hire someone new. Fundamentally, you're doing the job while all HR/administration is done in the background. It's crazy but that's just the way it is.

After 5 months, my promotion will be formal next month and it's taken several other internal moves and promotions to make the team structure work with my promotion (which has no doubt added to the timescale). I did have a few sense of humor failures along the way, wondering why I was doing silly hours and managing more people and projects with no additional pay but I persevered hoping that the financial and professional gain at the end would be worth it.

IMO, OP - if you have aspirations to move up the career ladder then go for it, you can always leave at the end of the 3 months if you're not happy with what's on offer but at least you've got a little bit more experience to add to your CV. If you get a formal promotion at the end of it and a pay rise and don't like the job then again, you've made your CV look much stronger, should you wish to jump ship. If you get promoted, like the job and get some extra cash then you've lost nothing.

If this promotion didn't get mentioned, would you still be doing this job for the next 3 months regardless? How much more work are you going to be doing for 'free'? An unreasonable amount?

Don't cut your nose off to spite your face and don't do anything rash that will flag you for any future redundancies, etc. Watching your peers get the job you should have had, three months down the line, won't be nice.

So you have a promotion, Congratulations! Take it regardless of the short term pay issues and use the experience to build your career path. If the business fails to deliver on their promises then look for something else while in the senior role. You will be surprised what is out there as your career progresses and the renumeration commensurate with the role. This way no prospective employer will be put off if you decide to replay the outcome and broken promises.


Treat your team well and they should in turn treat you well and your team is as strong as the weakest member. Look to strengthen personal relationships and invest quality time in developing your colleagues. Understand why you have been cherry picked for promotion and use this to your and the businesses advantage. If no extra renumeration is on offer what about extra development for you? That should provide an insight into their thinking. Or Not!

We all have to eat poo pie occasionally from the floor sweeper to the most senior exec or owner. You haven't got to enjoy it, you just have to do it. Enjoy the ride, even if it's a bumpy one!

markhewitt1978 wrote:

I've effectively been internally promoted twice here. Neither of which has yet resulted in an elevation of status or pay.

I was part of a team of two systems administrators, the other guy got made redundant, leaving me doing most of it and my boss picking up some of the slack, then my boss has gone, and of course not replaced. So there's just me and all I've got is vague promises of a review.

Seems like you're in a prime position to make a few demands

jordan_217 wrote:

Seems like you're in a prime position to make a few demands

Yes, since I'm the only person in the company who knows the systems, but it's always put off with promises of things being looked at later or that there's some deal in the offing and things will change etc.

I have been internally promoted several times in my life and only once did I not get any additional benefits. In that particular case I did the same job with with a wider catchment so I guess there was an argument. However, I am now an employer and would never even consider offering someone a promotion but with no enhancement in pay. I agree with the OP, that is extracting the urine. It is the same as unpaid "internships". More urine extraction in my view. Heads the company wins, tails you lose. I would not want to work for a company with that kind of attitude to its employees.

Clearly the days of staying at one company for your entire life and moving up in seniority to whatever level are gone for most of us so instead you have to just look out for yourself to a large extent. I would advise viewing your salary as a lag indicator of your skill set, so that if you concentrate on skilling up then the money will come as a by product. This will also mean you end up in more interesting roles. Pretty much what Sloppy says above.

None of us are in your shoes but is the promotion going to lead to much better experience, or that job role that is the next tier up? If so then stick with it and you haven't lost anything, you have gained valuable experience and cv fodder for when you next go looking for work. I would say it is more about career development than money.

VTech wrote:

See, we don't disagree on everything !

Did someone just cross the beams?

nathancom wrote:

I am so glad my post has passed vetting by the wannabe mod...

I've said it before, if you out your nasty side away for a few weeks you do have valid input in many topics. I have also said several times that you obviously have decent intelligence and the point of that was to try and pry it towards being decent and nice instead of the opposite.

I wouldn't want to be a mod, I'm definitely not the leader type.

nathancom wrote:

VTech wrote:

nathancom wrote:

I am so glad my post has passed vetting by the wannabe mod...

I've said it before, if you out your nasty side away for a few weeks you do have valid input in many topics. I have also said several times that you obviously have decent intelligence and the point of that was to try and pry it towards being decent and nice instead of the opposite.

I wouldn't want to be a mod, I'm definitely not the leader type.

Oh kindly sod off. You trying to tell people off for being nasty is like Stevo trying to tell people off for being Right Wing. You have called anyone who disagrees with you a moron, gimp, fool etc etc just in the last few days. So please take your condescending and sanctimonious rubbish elsewhere.

Seriously, I do not want to converse with you, it is incredibly boring and pointless. I am not interested in repeating the boring drama you try and generate all the time like an episode of Towie.

I've never watched towie so I'll have to take your word on that but let me remind you of one major thing that blows what you have just said so far out of the water that it could have been typed on a different planet.

YOU actually followed me into dozens of threads that YOU participated in with no other reason than to argue with me.

Anyway, time for a cup of tea and 3 chocolate digestives. Laterzzzzz