Promotion

Promotion season at the office can cause a wide range of emotions — euphoria for those who received one and bittersweet for those who are happy for their promoted colleagues but feel left behind because they didn't get one. Not getting the promotion you wanted can be quite discouraging. It can leave you feeling resentful, disheartened, and confused about the direction you should take after the news. The first step is to take a look at yourself and your situation and figure out the reason why you were skipped over:

• You're too new. If you haven't been at your company for too long, your supervisors can't really judge you and the quality of work you're producing. You need some time to prove your mettle.
• There is a timeline. Your company may have a strict timeline and structure on how it approaches promotions. Find out what it is so you'll have a better idea of how to map out your strategy. Ask your manager more about the promotion process, and ask more-experienced colleagues how it has worked for them.
• You're doing the same thing. If you've been stagnant and haven't been taking on new responsibilities or different duties, then your manager may think your current title is appropriate for what you're doing. Just because they aren't giving you more responsibility doesn't mean you should accept that. Show your colleagues you're growing as an employee and volunteer for duties that aren't necessarily in your job description.
• Your superiors aren't advocating for you. It's really important to have your superior become your advocate. After all, they are the ones who work closely with you and monitor your work, so their opinion has a lot of sway when it comes time for evaluation. And if your manager says you aren't ready, it can really hurt your chances of getting promoted. It's hard to work around this if your manager is not supportive, but try to win her over with your accomplishments or try your best to be more visible so people other than your manager can see the work you're doing.

Read on for more.

Learn how to leave a good impression on your boss from LearnVest. Follow some of these tips and you could maybe even get a promotion.

Have you ever been promoted?

If so, then congratulations! If not, then there might be something you can do about that.

And we don't mean "be more confident" or "be more passionate." We mean specific actions you can take to impress your superiors — and take home a bigger paycheck.

Related: 10 Fastest-Growing Jobs

Even if you're not specifically looking for a flashier title or more money (although who isn't?), these tips will help you become — or remain — a valued employee.

How did we find such useful tips? We asked the boss.

In fact, we interviewed nearly a dozen bosses, in fields ranging from marketing and tech to new media, executive recruiting, and financial planning. They spoke to LearnVest on the condition of anonymity to share exactly why they'd promoted a direct report in the past. From telling the boss when she's wrong to schmoozing at happy hour, their answers just might surprise you.

Tell Me I'm Wrong

• "I love when someone smart challenges my thinking," says one boss.
• That's not to say you should be arguing with your supervisors on a regular basis, but if you have a well-thought-out point that disagrees with your boss's plan, then consider bringing it up directly. As this boss says, "I love it even more when a person has the data/facts or examples to actually make their point."

Read on for more.

If you think working hard and producing great results for your company will get you a promotion, think again. According to a new study by market research firm Penn Schoen Berland, 92 percent of senior executives say they've seen people get promotions through favoritism and 84 percent of them have observed it at their own companies. However, the good news is that although playing favorites is a heavy factor in career progression, executives still say skills and performance reviews are the reasons for their most recent promotions.

The research also revealed another important nugget: managers already know who they are going to pick for the promotion if they have a pool of candidates to choose from even before the decision process begins.

The working world is a very complex environment and more often than not, emotion plays a big factor. After all, during the interviewing process, the interviewers are more likely to hire those whom they feel an affinity with. Further, they are also more likely to hire those who have been referred by current employees. That almost seems to be a mild form of favoritism, so I'm not surprised that it continues to play a role throughout the course of the employee's career. Although workers should be judged based on their performance, it very often does not work out that way. Do you see favoritism in your workplace?

This post was shared in our Savvy Confessions group by a reader with a tough choice: to stay, or go?

My manager just announced she's leaving the company in a few months and though I've worked for her for nearly five years and she's been grooming me to take her place, it doesn't look like I'll get the position. I met with my manager and her boss recently and they noted they will likely do an internal hire, not a promotion from within the division to replace her, but that they were happy with my work and hoped I will continue to grow and seek other opportunities within the company and management. I am pretty floored — given the path I've constructed with my manager, I felt pretty certain I was the next in line. From a purely professional standpoint, it's time for me to make strides and take on a management role if I'm going to progress in my career and knowing it won't happen so swiftly as I planned at my current job, I'm forced to reevaluate my career path. So here's my dilemma now: Do I take this as a sign and seek a new company I know will encourage me to progress faster, or do I stay and wait it out, even if that means I'll be harboring some negativity for being overlooked? What would you do?

Share your own career- and finance-related questions anonymously in the Savvy Confessions group for a chance to be featured on SavvySugar and advised by fellow Savvy readers.

This post comes from Diana Nguyen from our Professional Development Kick group:

My New Year's resolution: dress more professionally at work — and that includes wearing heels! That may not sound difficult, but let me tell you: walking up and down the hilly San Francisco streets can be a pain — literally! My feet are killing me.

I'm starting kind of late, but so far I've worn heels everyday this week. And besides a few compliments thrown my way, I can really feel the heels work wonders for my posture and toning my legs (thanks, Mr. Louboutin and Mrs. Miu Miu!). I wonder if being in shape can really be an advantage over your average-size co-workers.

Do you think dressing better will help your status at work?

Join my Professional Development Kick Group and share what you plan on polishing up, then update the group with your pitfalls and success stories. The community and I will be your number one fans!

Boy, was there a huge surprise on last night's Mad Men! The season ends with a bang when Don Draper busts out an unexpected proposal to his beautiful secretary, Megan. After announcing the engagement to the office, we see a rare moment of camaraderie between Peggy and Joan, in which the two unhappily predict Don will probably promote Megan to copywriter since, as Joan puts it, "he's not going to want to be married to his secretary."

To find out what this means for Peggy and Joan, read after the jump.

On last night's episode of The Office, we watched Pam Beesly expertly maneuver herself toward a promotion. She realized that she did not have the "sales gene" and saw the opportunity to grab the office administrator position when a window treatment salesman came around asking to speak to one. She tested the waters with Oscar, negotiating a salary that seemed to fit the position. However, the main focus was about the title change and gaining a steady salary that was not based on commission. In these harsh economic times, many companies are unable to afford the monetary increases that come with a promotion, so some of them are promoting without a salary raise. Would you feel valued if your company promoted you but did not give you a higher salary?

Photo courtesy of NBC

This post was shared by reader onlysourcherry in our Ask Savvy group.

I started at my current company right out of college. I've been promoted twice and am now an assistant manager with a huge range of responsibilities. Unfortunately (at work at least) I'm young, blonde, and a woman. While people stopped treating me like my boss's secretary when I moved into an office, one issue lingers — my coworkers sometimes call me "sweetie" or "honey" on the phone. It's mostly older women who do this. It drives me crazy! Is there a tasteful and professional way I can point out to them that this is really inappropriate?  Or should I just suck it up and deal with it?

Ask anything career or budget-related — well almost anything — by posting your questions in the Ask Savvy group, and readers and I will weigh in to support you.