[brooksbp]

It's not almost always bullshit. People just can't grok that their management does not agree that they're performing as stellar as they think.

[ZephyrBlu]

Generally you're ramping up for 3-6mo and then most companies want to see that you're performing at the expected level for at least 6mo. That's 9-12mo bare minimum.

If you were downleveled and they promised you staff+ then they are probably going to be more stringent and there are also more factors out of your control (E.g. your team, org, manager, etc) so good luck getting "quickly" promoted.

[ergocoder]

Then, you also wait for the promo cycle which is every 6 month. Promoted in a year is the best case.

In a normal case, you wouldn't be promoted because there wouldn't be big enough project for the next level.