Pissed

Today, the promotion list came out.

Whilst I expected a lot of the partner names, I was surprised that one of my good pals, the one who slogged as much as I did when I chased that SG Insurance client.. but he got one up on me, he actually sold THAT core banking system job for USD65M.

I'd expect he'd make partner... Noo.......

Who made partner? Another of my close pals, different race, different "group" (non financial services) sold perhaps quite a bit to government agencies... but no where near USD65M.

What's the morale of the story?

There is no consistent formula of making partner. Being in a "different group" helps. Perhaps having a different race helps to.

Let me be clear, I have nothing against this friend, just that the formulas for promotion are not clear.

Here I am, probably my company's best technical and application architect, being shafted because I cannot sell...

You know, I have bailed the firm out on so many occassions
1) in 1995, when this custom built core banking project was rolling out to the Kajang pilot branch, all matters of shit hit the fan. I spent 11pm to 7am every day for 2 months to stabilise and ensure the software went live!
2) in 1996, because the client just rolled out the new core banking system, I was seconded to the client to run production support for 3 months. I got 3am calls to trouble shoot batch runs etc..
3) in 1997, i was plunked into this death march project, the client threatened to sue, we had a software with architecture so bad that it made Microsoft Windows look stable. We had a 7,000 SIR count. I was sent there to pacify the client, bring it back on track, go to Paris to finish UAT. All this whilst my wife was expecting
4) in 1999, I was sent to that 100 day death march project, on day 41, to ensure we lauched an internet bank in under 100 days. I worked day and nite, in Melbourne, when my wife just gave birth to my son...
5) in 2000, I was sent on this banking merger because the current project manager pissed the client off so much (this project manager also just got promoted). I had to facilitate over 800 bank staff, coordinated the fastest banking merger/ conversion ever ie in under 5 months..
6) in 2003, I was chasing this SGD75M insurance core system custom built project in Singapore. SARs was on... my wife begged me not to go. I moved my family to Malacca. I took the bus to Singapore every Monday morning, took the bus back every Friday nite.. for 1 year chasing this shit..
7) On Malaysia's largest bank, there used to be another team targetting that client. Screwed up big time. I went in there and sold a ground breaking project.. with this new Azur alliance.. world's first..
8) just recently, ran a custom built J2EE job, on time, ahead of budget, with the firm's best Team satisfaction survey score

and what do I get?