What's the right number of months or years before you should get a promotion?

If you're sitting at your desk wondering whether you've put in enough time to deserve that next step up, you're asking one of the most common career questions in our industry. The truth is, there's no magic number that automatically unlocks your next promotion, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably stuck in some pretty outdated thinking.

The creative industry moves fast, projects change constantly, and your growth doesn't follow a neat annual calendar. Some people are ready to move up after six months, others might need a few years to develop the right skills. What matters isn't how long you've been warming that chair.

This question was answered by Andy Wright – Host, CEO Streamtime and founder of Never Not Creative, with extensive experience leading creative teams and understanding career progression; Renee Hyde – Client and Agency Leadership at Howatson+Company, specialising in running large integrated clients and developing talent across various roles; and Martine Beaumont – Mental Health Expert, founder and CEO of Select Wellness, supporting workplace wellbeing and helping people navigate career anxiety.

There are no right numbers (seriously)

Renee cuts straight to the heart of it: "There are no right numbers. This is kind of an easy one. I think that's such a, if you've got it firstly if you've got a manager that has that view, that's such an outdated view."

She's seen the full spectrum: "I have been in roles for six months and then I've sat in the same role for five years. It's very much dependent on what you're achieving in your role, what the expectation of you in your next role that you want to move up to is."

This isn't about putting in your time like some sort of career prison sentence. It's about demonstrating that you're ready for the next challenge, regardless of whether that takes six months or two years.

Have the right conversations with your manager

The key to understanding when you're ready for a promotion lies in having proper conversations with your manager. Renee suggests approaching it strategically: "I think it's around having the right conversations with your manager around what the expectations of the role you want to move up to are."

Don't just march in demanding a promotion because you've survived another year. Instead, "talking about having that conversation with your manager is very much about going 'I feel like I'm at the next level', talking to them what you're contributing, talking to them about how you've grown in your current role and being able to get a really clear pathway from them about what the expectation of the next role is and what you would need to be doing to get there."

Take control of your own development

Here's where many people get stuck: they wait for their manager to notice their growth instead of actively demonstrating it. Renee emphasises the importance of regular check-ins where "you can then come back for that conversation and say 'well you told me I needed to grow a piece of business, so you told me I needed to have more confidence presenting in creative presentations if you're a creative, or learn a new coding language if you're in that in a tech team' and being able to actually kind of demonstrate that you've reached those milestones is really important."

"Taking control of your own development is something, particularly if you're ambitious and you want to move to that next level, is something that's as much on you as it is on your manager."

Work with what you've got (even if it's not ideal)

Not every company operates on merit-based promotions. Renee acknowledges this reality: "It also depends where you work obviously there are some companies that have annual cycles. We don't do that here at H and Co, we very much promote based on merit and that can be anytime."

If you're in a more traditional setup with annual reviews, don't just wait around. "If you've got a manager that's more structured and traditional in that way, I'd be agitating for those conversations to be happening regularly and for you to be able to come to those meetings demonstrating 'these were the goals that we set, this is what you told me I needed to do to achieve that next level and here's how I'm achieving them, could you give me some feedback'."

Use available resources

Renee shared a brilliant resource that can help even if your company doesn't have clear progression frameworks: "I'm going to share an amazing resource that someone shared with me the other day, it's called progression.fyi and on there it literally has hundreds of companies' role progression frameworks."

Even if your company doesn't have formal frameworks, "you could still go 'hey' with your manager 'let's have a look at where I am on this framework and what I need to do to get to the next level'."

Managing the anxiety of promotion conversations

Martine addresses the mental side of these conversations, which can be genuinely nerve-wracking. When you're building up to that conversation with your manager, anxiety is normal. Her advice is practical: ground yourself before and during the conversation.

"When we're nervous we tend to leave ourselves and then we lose our words and our resources, so just grounding even when you're on the call, just you know, oh there's that bit of green around again, great."

Focus on merit, not time served

The bottom line is this: what's the right number of months or years before you should get a promotion? However long it takes you to demonstrate you're ready for the next level. Some people get there quickly, others need more time to develop the necessary skills. Both paths are completely normal.

Instead of watching the calendar, focus on having clear conversations about expectations, actively working towards specific goals, and regularly demonstrating your growth. Your promotion timeline should be based on your achievements and readiness, not on some arbitrary time requirement that probably doesn't reflect how modern creative businesses actually work.