Why I failed to get promoted at Amazon

How the promotion process really works

Just like Kristi Coulter in Amazon outside of Ads, I never got promoted during my years as Principal Research Scientist within Amazon Ads. I did participate in many promotions though - always the bridesmaid, never the bride. What did I learn from these situations?

Why do you even want to get promoted?

Don't laugh - this actually is a key question at Amazon:

1) you may be much more productive and happier at your current level;

2) your pay can lower after the promotion, as you by definition will not be a high performer for the first 6 months at the next level.

I was completely uninterested in getting promoted for the first 2 years. But then I realized how moving to the next level could enable me and my team to reach our goals better and faster. Many parts of the organization only take L8s seriously, and hierarchy is important. As David Anderson puts it:

Amazon believes strongly in hierarchy, which allows for high quality, fast decision-making. What this model sacrifices is social cohesion, and the ability for people to feel that they have agency over larger decisions. While you can contribute your opinion, the decision is *owned* by the senior leader in charge of the area.

What is the promotion process like at Amazon?

Amazon is peculiar in at least 3 aspects:

1) your manager's peers have a large influence on your promotion chances

2) your role must have the potential to be performed at the next level (scope)

3) you need to be consistently performing at the next level

The first part is crucial for my lack of promotion: while I had plenty of positive feedback from my manager, my skip-level manager (VP) and some from my SVP, I did not have much exposure to my manager's peers. My manager and I devised several ways to achieve this, from asking them for their specific pain points to organizing seminars and events for the entire org. Helping them with these pain points proved challenging though, and my expert advice on marketing budget and allocation was often overlooked for other considerations.

The second part is possible but tough for an L7 individual contributor (IC). As you go up the Amazon hierarchy, managers outnumber ICs, and there was only one L8 IC in my entire org. My mentor was an L8 IC turned manager in another org, and their key advice was to give office hours for a large group of ICs, so that they could talk me up to their managers.

Finally, you need to show evidence of consistently performing at the promotion level. This is a key issue for candidates really good at their current job. A key indication of your progress can be found in the annual Forte evaluations, where you can invite colleagues yourself to give you feedback. Both as a giver and as a receiver, I loved every minute of the process, revealing talents the team loved but the employee themself often took for granted. The feedback is anonymous, but later editions compared the opinion of self and the manager to the other providers. Here's an example of Leadership Principles that signal excellent current job performance, but issues in getting promoted: