How do you react when a promo decision has been turned down?
Assuming you cannot switch internally or externally for a few months (as I am waiting for H1B visa ), what can be done during this time? I was promised of the promo carrot for quite a while and now I am feeling dejected. Any suggestions from experienced devs on how you would tackle this?
Dont react, it wont help. Look at the long term picture. Keep building your skills. However, deep dive and understand why you didn't get promo, is it your manager or you didn't demonstrate next level work, be honest to yourself.
What was the reason? You should have gotten very specific feedback, "you missed on delivery X, we were expecting Y, and we would like to see you do Y on this next Z project, then we will be able to promote". If you're not getting something that specific then the miss wasn't on you, it was on them, and you should GTFO.
You clearly have never managed anyone and don’t know how promotions work. Reasons like the one you quoted is what’s invented after the fact - 100% of the time - when your boss couldn’t win the fight with his peers to get you promoted instead of someone else. Promotions operate against a budget, it’s always a knife fight - whose direct report will be promoted. There are coalitions and waiting queues and politics galore. Don’t blame yourself and don’t seek meaning if you didn’t win this time.
I manage about 50 software engineers via five managers. If one of my managers denies a promotion and doesn't give a specific reason why and what the engineer missed doing and needs to do in order to get promoted, then that manager is going to very personally help me meet my unregretted attrition target.
There is no way I would feel valued after that, so I’d leave ASAP. If I can’t leave quickly, I’d change orgs and then leave ASAP.
Exactly, is it fair to show that to your manager? Can I ask to be compensated in some way — like a cost of living raise or spot bonus?
Quit
Eventually yes! Not an option rn
Just move on and do the best that I can at my job and stop thinking about it. It's already in the past and there is nothing you can do to change the decision. So there is no reason to dwell on it.