How to Get Promoted as a Project Manager: 6 Strategies for Career Advancement

Tom has been a successful digital project manager for two years now. He gets excellent feedback in his performance reviews from his manager and from the stakeholders he works with. By now, his school friends and other work colleagues have received several promotions, but he’s still in a first-level project lead role. He’s eager to advance in his project management career, and increase his salary.

But when he meets with his manager to talk about a possible career advancement as a senior project manager, she’s not as supportive as he expected. He's met with the dreaded response: "You're instrumental to the team, and I need you to lead the upcoming enhancements on your current project. And as you know, we have a hiring and promotion freeze right now. You might need to wait a year or so for any sort of promotion."

This scenario is all too common for project managers these days. If you’re also finding it more difficult than you anticipated to land a promotion, know that there are things you can do to set yourself up for your next career move. 

How To Get Promoted As A PM

Regardless of where you're at in your project management career, you must take a proactive stance if you're hoping to land a promotion. Consider the following tips:

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1. Understand What’s Getting In Your Way

Before you can move forward, you must take the time to listen and understand why you haven’t been promoted, or why your manager is hesitant to help you move to the next level. Don’t immediately jump to conclusions or assume that your manager dislikes you or your work. In your next one-on-one, ask your manager: What can I be doing to set myself up for a promotion in the next 6 months?

Listen to their answer carefully, and take the time to consider why you might not be getting the promotion you want. Managers may withhold promotions for a variety of reasons, including:

• Expertise. In some cases, your expertise may be working against you. If you’re competent and reliable, your manager may be hesitant to move you to a different project or new role. If you move to a different team, it would take time for a replacement to reach your level of competence, which could impact project timelines and success.
• Loss of headcount. Or, if you’re promoted to a different role, and the company decides not to backfill your position, that could lead to complications and negative project outcomes. 
• Macro-economic context. You should also be aware of the financial implications of your promotion. More and more companies are restricting promotions and raises due to competition, low stock prices, and other economic factors. 
• Lack of appropriate skills. While it may be a tough pill to swallow, there is a chance that your manager simply believes you’re not ready for a promotion. This may be the result of poor performance in the past, or a lack of skills necessary to perform well in a higher-level role.

2. Clarify Why You Want a Promotion

If you only want a promotion to be like your peers or to get a pay increase, that likely won’t be enough to convince your manager. It’s also not enough to keep you motivated in the long term. The path to a promotion as a project manager may be arduous, so it’s important to be clear on your “why.”

Before moving forward, take some time to reflect on your motivations. Ask yourself: Why do I want a promotion? What is my motivation?

Here are a few valid reasons you may want to be promoted:

• Maybe you want to get more visibility, take part in more strategic decisions, or manage people. 
• Perhaps your long-term goal is to become an executive or to make a more significant impact. Your promotion may be the first step to achieving this dream.
• You may be bored in your current role because you have learned everything you can. You are not challenged anymore, and you want to learn something new.

3. Understand The Paths to be Promoted

Landing a promotion as a project manager is like a strategy game— you need to understand both the instructions and the unwritten rules. 

To prepare your way to a promotion, it’s important to learn the answers to these questions (which can usually be achieved by talking with your manager or HR department):

• Is the promotion process centralized at the company level or do they happen within your business unit? Do they happen just a few times per year or on an ongoing basis?
• What data is used to decide on promotions? Is it based on just performance?
• What information or documents will you need to provide?
• Who decides on promotions? What role does your manager have? Who is in the room when the final decisions are made?
• What are the needed skills for your next level? Will your company help you acquire the skills you are missing? Do you need to pass any project management certifications?
• Are there other project managers at your company who have recently gotten a promotion? How did they accomplish that? 

4. Get Involved In High-visibility Projects

Growing in your project management career doesn't always mean landing a more significant title. Accumulating different experiences to stretch and expand your skills will set you apart as a candidate for a promotion, paving the way and helping you prepare for your next step.

In project management, some criteria that may be used to evaluate your growth include:

• The scope and complexity of past projects you’ve managed
• The number of stakeholders involved in your projects and their locations
• The budget you manage
• The visibility of your projects in the organization

That last bullet point is key. Working on high-visibility projects will ensure that executives know your name and the value you can bring. You can be the best project manager in the world, but if you don’t have people in the room advocating for you when promotion conversations occur, making that jump will be even more difficult.

That is where your network plays an important role. Make yourself aware of ongoing projects so that you can raise your hand when your expertise would be helpful. If you do identify a project that could help move you in the right direction, have a conversation with your manager about how you can get involved. You might say something like:

"I’ve contributed successfully to projects X, Y, and Z for two years, and I’d like to take part in a more strategic project as the lead developer. I’ve heard of Project A, which really seems like a disruptive innovation. I did some research out of curiosity and found two competitive products with missing features. We have the technical knowledge to implement them. Is there a way I can get more involved with this project?"

5. Enrich Your Current Role

If a promotion isn’t possible in the short-term, you may want to focus instead on rounding out your expertise in your current role. Or, you can seek out a lateral position in your organization. That way, when a promotion is on the table, you’ll be ready. In the senior project management world, for example, you’ll need to improve your technical skills, interpersonal skills, and project management skills to find success.

There are several ways you can go about building up your skills in these areas. You can attend webinars and take online courses. You can write thought leadership articles, speak at conferences, be a guest on industry podcasts, or volunteer to share your expertise in communities of practice. Do the work to be known as an expert in your company and industry. Keep abreast of the latest trends in project management by being a part of different communities–you don’t need to have a project management certification to volunteer in project management communities.

Your organization might even be willing to help you improve your skills. Ask your manager something like this: 

"I’d like to prepare myself for leading a high visibility project, and I’ve found a good course about leadership that will help me gain more experience. Are there any professional development benefits I could use to pursue this opportunity?"

6. Consider Leaving Your Company

If after putting in the work it still doesn’t seem like a promotion is on the table, you may want to consider looking for another role.

While you work on "Plan A" inside your company (building up your skills and seeking a promotion), start taking control of your future by crafting a "Plan B" (looking for roles outside of your current company). Dust off your resume and start networking. Take a pulse of the job market. Are project management jobs difficult to land right now, or would it be a smart career move to make a switch?

Learning more about what is available to you outside the company might also refine your strategy on how to approach your "Plan A."

What’s Next? 

At the end of the day, there are a lot of factors that go into getting promoted as a project manager, and a lot of them are out of your control. So while you go through this process, try to focus on what you can control—how you want to grow your expertise and skills. 

To help you on that journey, DPM has hundreds of project management templates, samples, and examples. Join our membership community to get access and connect with other digital project managers in Slack.