How to Ask for a Promotion (And Get It!)

Many of us hope that one day our bosses will call us into their office (or Zoom meeting room), tell us how amazing we’re doing, and offer us a promotion (with accompanying large bonus!) Unfortunately, that’s not a realistic scenario for most of us. Between busy bosses and competing priorities, it’s easier for many companies to wait for employees to ask for a promotion, rather than the other way around. As a result, most of us need to do the legwork to draw attention to our successes and advocate for a promotion.

However, asking for a promotion can be super intimidating. Luckily, there are steps you can take to prepare yourself and increase your odds of a good outcome.

Consider What You Want

Before even considering asking for a promotion, you need to get clear on what you want from your career. Do you want to move into a more senior version of your role? Or to a different part of the company or a position with different job functions? Alternatively, you may want a role that doesn’t exist yet. Or perhaps a mix of these–such as a more senior role that also involves some job functions you don’t currently perform. Be clear on what you are looking for so that the following steps are easier!

Compile Evidence Early

Your ability to highlight your accomplishments will likely be the most important factor determining whether you receive a promotion.

We often start thinking about our work accomplishments around the time we decide we want to pursue a promotion. The problem with that is it’s very hard to remember all our accomplishments, especially if we’re thinking over the course of years. On top of it, we may remember that we got a compliment on our work, but we can’t remember who said it or where.

This is why it’s so important to start compiling a list of your accomplishments as early as possible. Ideally as soon as you start! Keep a running document with notable accomplishments and include any sources to back those accomplishments up. You might copy an email response where a client praised your work. You could link to a particularly beautiful report you put together. Or you might mention specific metrics of your success if possible.

I created the following template to track my accomplishments. You could adapt it to meet your needs.

Seek Feedback

Compiling your accomplishments is important. However, if you don’t know the criteria you’ll be evaluated on, you might not know if you’re compiling the right evidence or if your work is even considered promotion-worthy! It would majorly suck to spend a lot of time on, say, process improvement only to learn that your boss is mainly interested in your leadership on client-facing work.

Given this, you’ll want to set up periodic meetings with your boss if you haven’t already. Use this time, well in advance of when you plan to seek a promotion, to clarify your goals. Ask for feedback on steps you can take to achieve those goals. As part of that, you can ask about the qualities they look for in people who have the position you want.

This is also a great opportunity to ask about things you need to work on. While it’s always hard to hear that our boss doesn’t think we are unequivocally the greatest, you don’t want to be hampered by something fixable.

In the template above, I use 3 common metrics of success for a promotion: highly meritorious work, examples of leadership, and senior-level tasks (i.e. tasks that someone in the position you want is doing already). You can choose alternative metrics depending on your position and conversations with your boss.

Set the Stage for a Promotion

If possible, I recommend setting the stage for a promotion 6 months before you would expect to receive it. Use your check-ins with your boss to say that your 6-month goal is to receive a promotion to X position. Ask again what steps you need to take to reach that goal, what the process for promotion looks like, and if there is anything they need or would like to see to help make that happen.

Taking this step shows that you are considerate of your boss and the organization. It shows you recognize that promotions often take time and that you are willing to do the work. It also shows your forward-thinking and motivation.

Do Market Research

At this point, you should have a solid base of evidence for your great work. The next step is to consider what a fair salary bump might look like in the context of your promotion. To do this, you’ll want to do some market research. You can use Glassdoor, SalaryExpert, and Indeed, to name a few great tools for salary comparisons. In particular, SalaryExpert allows for a very customized view of your salary given your location, skills, and experience.

Having this market research will help you determine whether an offer is fair and whether to advocate for more money if needed.

Come Prepared

The last step is to come to your meeting prepared! Bring your promotion assessment materials and your market research with you. Consider distributing the promotion assessment materials to your boss prior to your meeting. This will help guide the discussion and remind your boss of your amazing accomplishments, if they hadn’t considered them fully.

Hopefully you’ve done so much of the legwork already, that this meeting is mainly a celebration of your accomplishments. However, if you do not receive a promotion, don’t get discouraged! The reason may have nothing to do with you. It could be an issue of timing or funds or personnel. Or it could be that you just need a little more time to build your case. Either way, use this opportunity to show you are willing to put in the work. Ask for next steps and ideally schedule a follow-up meeting for a few months out to reevaluate.

No matter the outcome, this process will hopefully help remind you what an amazing person you are, what you want from life, and whether you’re in the right position to get it. I believe in you!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider liking, subscribing, or sharing with others. I always really appreciate it! For related content, see my posts on giving a great presentation, writing a stellar resume, and saving for any goal.