In 2019 I was an SE2 the thing that turned it around was reading this one book https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Corner-Office-Strategies-Bus... . Based on the title of the book it's easy to misconstrue as a guide to using underhanded tactics to get ahead but it's not. It gives you the tools and strategies to understand how people actually get ahead working in corporations today.

This covers a lot of the same ground as Brendan Reid's "Stealing the Corner Office"[1], which gives a playbook for helping stuff like this work in your favour, rather than against you.

You fit the profile of what Reid calls the "Smart but Stationary Manager" - a guy who is a lot smarter than a lot of the people who do get promoted, but who doesn't optimize for the right factors. Reid's point is that a lot of these guys get habitually overlooked as they optimize for the success of the company, rather than themselves, and assume they will be evaluated on their work alone.

The idea that when you go to work, you are there first and foremost to work on your own career development (rather than the goals of the company) crops up again and again. Even in failing companies, you see people make spectactular career gains.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stealing-Corner-Office-Strategies-B...