Waheell... This is a big can o' worms, and no one here knows what really went down (I don't think even you do) so there a necessarily going to be some assumpti

Waheell... This is a big can o' worms, and no one here knows what really went down (I don't think even you do) so there a necessarily going to be some assumptions. Can you forgive me (and the others that are presumably preparing their own replies even as I type this)? If you're cool with cutting straight to the chase: I'm pretty sure there are some kind of "rules to getting ahead" at your workplace that you are not perceiving. I don't know what they are, but I think you must be really whiffing on them bad to not even get a token promotion for what you've contributed. (One assumption I'm making is that you've done what you said you did. I have a decent BS-dectector and while there's limited info to go on here, I believe you are sincere.) So... 1. What promotion did you go for? Your accomplishments have been technical so if you were going for a technical promotion -- e.g. SW Engineer to Senior SW Engineer, or Senior to Principal or whatever -- or just a raise in $$$ then you've made a good case. On the other hand, if you were looking to go into, e.g., management then the technical accomplishments might not as obviously qualify you. (Personally, I think people who show they can excel in domains with complex and competing constraints are qualified for a wide variety of responsibilities, but I haven't found that's a widely held view among executives.) 2. You manager may be powerless to give you a promotion. Some mangers (weak ones) won't admit it, but they may have no actual power to promote you no matter what they do. 3. You say you're OK at office politics (good but not the best) but I think there must be some stuff -- some dominant trends -- that you are not fully perceiving. E.g., you thought the way to get ahead was to work 70+ hours a week for a year, but apparently it's actually to develop a "strong connection" with your manager. I don't know. You might be able to adjust and excel and get the promotion you want at your current employer, but it really sounds like you will be "swimming upstream" there: you've got skills and a work ethic that they don't value. Consider working normal hours at your current position and in the meantime (1) look for a new position where they might value what you have to offer; (2) spend the newly freed-up hours doing something personally enriching (whether personally or professionally). Edit: Ah, shoot, went from zero to 37 responses while I wrote this, and the Opost is flagged to boot. Oh wells.