Working as a Sr. Project Manager at a med-tech firm and just had my review after completing a year and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
The job I interviewed for and joined was L4 level and asked for 15 years experience. I only had 7 years but the hiring manager went ahead with me anyway cos “character > experience”. 6/7 months in, My title randomly changed in some of the systems from Sr. Project Manager to Sr. Program Manager and I asked to clarifythat a while back so they changed it back to Sr. project manager.
I was reporting to the VP until 3 months ago until he introduced a layer as all his other reports were Director level. My new boss, a Director, asked me to trust him to take me where I want. And that I just need to be a little patient while I continue doing the great work. I will be getting the title I want along with the increase in level back to where it was.
At my review with the director, I was told that they are “right sizing” that across the company now and I've been shifted to Level 3 as a result, which had comps maxed at ~$xx for my role. Since I'm making more than that but they won't cut it to the max in the range. However, my 4% merit increase would be in the form of a one time lumpsum bonus amount as I'm above the max in the range. If I was at L4, I would've had that reflect in my base salary. More importantly, they could pull this on me again next year and say I'm already maxed.
I got a 150% bonus for individual contribution and a decent overall review so it's likely not about my performance. It just feels like a demotion and I'm getting screwed over for something that was broken for no fault of mine even though they've kept my title, my pay the same and given me refreshers.
I trusted my org and love the culture and people here but this just feels wrong. Am I missing something?
Would love some perspective.