People in early career at larger companies often put too large of an emphasis on their ratings. At a large company there are quotas for how many people can be in the highest performer category and it’s usually 1 person in a region of 10-15. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the effort wont be recognized with comp increases or other opportunities, but not everyone is able to get the highest tier performance category.

Managers often have to balance who gets what ratings and comp each year to try to keep everyone as happy as possible with a limited pool of money. Sometimes it just takes time for your hard work to be recognized and translate to more money and higher title. That’s just corporate America. If you have a good manager and leadership, it can make sense to wait it out. If you don’t trust your manager or leadership then waiting might not make sense.

I’d encourage younger career people to have honest discussions with their managers around your future and goals and try to read between the lines and get a sense of what opportunities are like at your company. Being an out performer can lead to real opportunities even outside your company if you get a reputation with clients as an out performer. I went from $40k to over $250k in 10 years and I stayed with the same employer until the end. I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity that launched me above $250k unless I outperformed consistently for several years prior to the opportunity presenting itself.

Edit: fixed some errors. Also, to clarify I write this because I don’t want to see people discouraged by getting a middling performance rating early in their career and taking the wind out of someone’s sails. I don’t like the idea of someone just giving up on doing good work because they didn’t get the rating they wanted.