Maybe look at 'level' in terms of seniority of experience gained through longevity instead of just job title alone. With almost a decade's worth of experience, you are a senior experienced hire and HR professional.

You cannot get more advanced level roles as you do not have previous experience of working on that level, and even if you obtained the role may struggle as you have not operated on that level before. If you leave HR, you will have to start at the bottom again.

However, to get a promotion, four key factors must all be true and come into the equation:

(1) The company must have a position that it needs filled;
(2) You must be capable of filling that position;.
(3) You must be the best person for that position;
(4) You must express interest and willingness to take the position.

Here below is what people often do not tell you regarding the truth about promotions and career advancement:

* You can't get promoted into a position that doesn't exist. Don't ask to be promoted to manager if the company doesn't need a new manager right now. It immediately positions you as someone who wants a promotion for the sake of it vs. showing a true understanding of how you can help your company. This is why you want to work at dynamic, growing, companies - those are the ones that generate new opportunities.

* Promotions are not about reward and punishment. Your company is not mommy or daddy who is going to give you ice cream or send you to your room to reward or punish your behaviour. The company needs certain things done, and you need to work with your company to get yourself into a position where you can help.

* Promotions are not about longevity - yes, it usually helps, but don't believe that "putting in your" time automatically makes you the best person for the open position It is not enough to just be "qualified" - you need to be the most qualified among both other internal candidates for the position as well as external candidates that could come in through a search. Think of your company as a sports team. Being able to kick a 30-yard field goal may make you "qualified" to play varsity, but you'll still lose out to the draftee who can kick 50-yarders. Be the guy who can kick 50-yarders.

* A promotion is a change of job description - you don't get a promotion then go right back to your old job at more pay. You go into a new job. Do you know what that news job is? Are you studying and preparing to do it?

* Promotions are about the future, not the past. They are about putting the best person into an open position starting *today*, not a reward for a job well done in the past. You can toil away for 80 hours weeks your whole careers as a great individual contributor, but that doesn't mean you "deserve" a promotion to a position you won't be good at.

* "Promotions" can be lateral - if you get promoted from senior engineer to junior manager, your salary may not necessarily go up. The pay scale for that open position may or may not be higher than your old job. Again, this is about job description. Do you want to be a manager or not? And would you want to be one even if it were less pay?

* Promotions are not about compensation - they are about an employee taking a role with a different set of responsibilities than the last role. Yes, more responsibility usually mean better comp, but the promotion is not a way to get you a raise, it is a way for the company to fill a role it needs filled. When you talk to your manager about a promotion, the conversation is about the job and why you want it. The compensation comes later.

Hi, have you spoken to your current manager? Any manager worth their salt should be very happy to have a career development discussion with a member of their team, even if they are working in a maternity cover role. You could explain that you want to progress and wondered if they could give you some honest feedback about what they feel may be holding you back and also what they would advise you to do to help you progress in their career.

Have a look at the volunteering section of People Management Jobs Online there are often voluntary HR positions that are about 8-10 hours a week and that you can do partly from home, some require previous HR experience but give exposure to working at higher levels pmjobs.cipd.co.uk/.../

In reply to Paul:

Thank you Paul