I must admit, I never did this, and I always managed to get promoted every year or so. This was due to the fact many companies wanted to retain me. This just shows there are no real promotions in SE. Progression is just used as a cheap way to try and retain staff that are in short supply. Its a trick, no company gives 2 hoots about an individual SEs career, its just marketing. Also managers need to give engineers a promotion/level up as there are pay ceilings for each level. If they want to keep someone they need, they level them up so they can give them a pay rise once the SE has hit that levels ceiling.