> Sounds great in theory, unfortunately, this doesn't really work in many situations because you need to be doing the job you were hired for.

I assume that when you are asking for promotion you would have already been doing the job you were hired to do and very well at that. That being the case, if you talk with your manager and they know you want to get promoted and are willing to help you, I see no reason they would be upset about you performing at a higher level.

Of course, every company and even team is different so this doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.

> Really, do you want more money or a better title? A better title doesn't really help at all and in fact can hinder. What you want is more money. Best way to get that is to move to another company.

At a well run company, a better title should come with more money but again, all companies are different.

That's a good way of ensuring that you'll only grow laterally, not vertically.

Some transitions take time. Going from engineer to management is one. Most of the people I've met that did this stayed at a company for several years to make that jump happen.

Why is this important? Going from place to place as an engineer might net $5-10k per hop, but the numbers and incentives from going from engineer to management and then transitioning into another company are much much larger.

>>Really, do you want more money or a better title? A better title doesn't really help at all and in fact can hinder.

If you have opportunity on one hand and money on the other. Always chose opportunity, because a good opportunity will lead to better money in the future.

Spoken like someone with plenty of money in the bank, which is of course a luxurious position to find yourself in. And in those circumstances I agree with you.

But the above doesn't hold for everyone, and thus I don't in general agree with your assessment.