I'm a former senior leader at Amazon. There's a secret reason you're not getting promoted and it has to do with 'calibration meetings' happening behind closed doors.

• Brandon Southern is the former head of analytics at eBay, Amazon, and GameStop. 
• He says that getting promoted is not necessarily about hard work. 
• In order to stand out, people should focus on building their personal brand. 

I've worked in tech for 20 years and served as the former head of analytics at companies like eBay, Amazon, and GameStop. I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of talented people. But most of them don't understand the real reasons they're not getting promoted.