Why would anyone think they "should have" been promoted? There's no logic at Oracle that moves you up the ladder in management. They can hire anyone they want and employees don't have rights to any job promotion. It's just how they do things and it's not employee friendly or supposed to help you with your career. If you want standard, stable, predictable raises and promotions, you'll need to look outside Oracle.
Think that @ZcUw0e7-hfy said it right.
I've seen complete id--ts promoted because they followed the tail of their managers. That's what it takes. Most people have too much self-respect to do that. That's particularly true of the best people. Seems like the best people are never promoted. Oracle is a top-heavy, bloated organization filled with people who have been promoted for bad reasons.
I should be CEO janitorial services because of work out the dumper takez.
There is "promotion" then there is promotion. Unless your management you don't have a lot of room for "promotion" but if you do your job well and continue to outperform your peers you'll still top out. Management even suggested that they want a certain percentage of each level, so they don't even encourage everyone to excel because, why, if everyone excelled everyone would end up being promoted and then they wouldn't have any lower level folks.
Some people think that promotions come based on time served and that they are entitled to them. No one is entitled to a promotion. Especially simply because you've been here for a certain amount of time. Ideally, they are based on contribution. That's often b---s--- as well. Take me for example. I've been around awhile. I don't expect a promo based on that. However. I have made huge contributions to building a successful global team. Then a guy comes in as VP and he's the buddy of a useless do nothing peer who does nothing but talk. Guess who gets two promos in a few years. Not the guy who has put in years of verifiable wotk and has been dedicated to the success of the team. This is Oracle. I'm too far away from retirement to coast (and I dont coast - it's not who I am) but I'm older and am realizing now that I've probably been here too long and have damaged my career. So I'm taking the time to invest in myself and get back up to speed. There's no promo here for me. I've been played like a fool by masters.