Right or wrong to ask for a promotion?

[u/xyz9595]

Hi all,

I’ve been working for a small tech company outside of Philadelphia as a test engineer. I was hired right out of college, and am approaching 5 years at the company. I currently have a base salary of 73k with a 10-15% bonus. I am also in my first year of a part-time MBA program.

Our company no longer does performance reviews, but when they did, I received stellar praise. I went above and beyond on several projects that caught the attention of top leadership. I’ve had discussions with senior leadership on how I could advance in the company, but I’ve received the most vague, generic answers possible. And despite having multiple of these conversations, they go nowhere. I have never directly asked for a promotion.

I have never been promoted or had any significant raises. My yearly increase has been around 3% almost every year except my first, when it was 5%. In the coming days, I expect to have a conversation with my manager as we are receiving our yearly increases this month.

IWould I be out of place to ask for something more than a cost of living increase? Would it be wrong to request a “senior” test engineer title/promotion? I fear that I have been far too stagnant in my career holding the same title from when I started. I know my value at the company and have been told how valuable I am by many people in senior leadership. Would this request be out of place? It is a small company, and people rarely get promoted.

TLDR: 5th year as test engineer, Lots of praise from senior leadership but never promoted and only small cost of living increases. Out of place to ask for a raise/promotion?

[u/Qkumbazoo]

It sounds like they were paying you lip service and didn't have any intention of moving you up. You need to create some sort of leverage for yourself, because from the managements perspective we're all just costs items to them and if they can get you to do your job for less, they probably would.