---
title: My first ever promotion
tags:
    - work
    - me
date: 2024-02-21T11:13:03Z
---

Yep, even though I've been working as a software engineer for around 11 years now, I've actually never had a promotion. Every change in title I've had throughout my career has been through changing jobs.

But today, for the first time in my career, I had it confirmed that I've been promoted. It's just a level-increase within the "Senior" bracket, but it's a huge win for me. I got some good feedback out of the process too (and lots of nice things said), and a modest salary increase too.

I'm glad I'm working somewhere that seems to be pretty proactive about recognising hard work - I've seen a lot of people go through the process successfully in the 15 months I've been there. It's in stark contrast to a previous role, where I burned out horribly trying to meet their criteria, only to be rejected for both a pay rise and a promotion[^1].

After that burnout I struggled _horribly_ with imposter syndrome, and really did not want to work for a long time. But I've had a couple of years to recover from that, and it seems to have paid off. I also think recognising, getting diagnosed with, and managing ADHD has helped massively. 

Anyway, I'm chuffed with this, and it only took a decade 😅.

[^1]: The reason for the former was that I was already at the top of the salary band, and the latter was because they needed more evidence (read: charge customers for me to be a lead, without paying me to be one).
