What to do when you get passed over for Promotion.

On paper you were the perfect candidate but for some reason, you did not get the promotion. It is disappointing, especially if you have already spent a lot of time and effort on the job, honing your skills and adding new ones. This will not be your last opportunity and there are ways to deal with what happened. In fact, they may prepare you for the next promotion.

Here is what to do when you get passed over for promotion and you did not get the promotion you were hoping for:

1. Its Okay To Have Those Feelings

Before you go too far into the future, allow yourself to deal with whatever you are feeling after

not getting promoted. It’s actually therapeutic to follow the series of emotions that can come

from such a situation. In a way, you will be mourning a potential loss and you should not be

afraid to let it out. But do it at home. Complain, yell, cry and be angry for awhile. These are all natural emotions and by acknowledging them, you will be better at handling many different situations. Curve balls happen and not getting a promotion is one of them. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to get over it and then carry on.

2. Learn To Accept It

Once you get your head back on straight and you are thinking clearly again, the first thing you must do before moving forward is accept what happened. Dwelling on it is not going to change the fact that you did not get the promotion. Accepting that you did not get it will allow you to look at everything a little bit differently and provide you with some insight to take into your future. Just because you didn’t get this promotion doesn’t mean you never will succeed within your workplace. Do not view it as a sign that you won’t ever succeed.

3. Work Out The Problems

Let’s face it, you did not get the promotion for a reason. Once you have gotten over the

disappointment you can start to reexamine the situation objectively. If you know some of the

other candidates you were up against, did they have that something extra that you didn’t? What about the person who got the promotion, is there a clear reason why they won it over you? If you can identify a specific clue, make that the one thing you need to work on. If it was a particular skill you don’t have, now is the time to upgrade yourself to add it to your skill set.

4. Use A Sounding Board

Depending on your work situation, if you are able to speak freely with co-workers and

department heads, ask for some feedback. This can take the form of a performance evaluation. Tell them you want to improve your performance and need to know what you need in order to do that. If you are honest about why you are asking for their input, be prepared for their honest responses. Possibly there are a few things you need to change about your work habits that may improve your chances at advancement. You won’t know if you don’t ask.

5. Research Your Future

Assuming you have received some direction from co-workers and management, it is okay to do some homework to see if you can advance with some changes. This may be a bit tricky to

discover at first, but eventually you may discover that a whole department is moving in a

direction you are not and that if you change, you can fit in. You may also learn that you may be as qualified as everyone else but some reason beyond your control is in play. If this is the case, you may have a different set of decisions to make.

6. Moving On

If it turns out that you are being passed over for promotions due to something in the office

culture that does not include you, you may need to move on. In other words, if you really want to move up the ladder in your career and it does not seem possible where you are, you may need to take your skills to a different company. It’s not a bad thing, really. Sometimes not receiving promotions is a signal that your time in one workplace has reached an end and you need to go somewhere else. The regular mindset of any career-minded employee is to climb the corporate ladder. Coming to that realization that you need to go somewhere else early may save you a lot of disappointment.

Sometimes, a promotion may do you no good. A promotion results in an increase in wages and an increase in responsibilities. Sometimes a promotion within a company is more than one can handle and it ends up becoming a bigger problem than not having any obvious form of career advancement.

This means you really need to know why you are trying to win the bigger and better job. If your incentive leans more towards money and positioning than a reward for hard work and job security, you may be looking at promotions the wrong way. Plus, there is always the chance where a promotion may reveal that maybe you are not following the right career path.

My take : Better Luck Next Time

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to why someone may be passed over for a promotion. These tips are meant to assist you with trying to deal with the situation and figure out how to do better the next time a promotion ends up in your future. By being better prepared and knowing what may have went wrong, you will become a better employee and potentially the best candidate for the next promotion.

But you won’t know this if you allow missing one as defining your future career path before you look into it further. Sooner or later you will discover your perfect fit and will experience much success in that position..