Do you have any advice on going from E4 to E5?

I was at the same point as you one time in my care and I lost my drive. I was able to find it again but by that time I no longer wanted to be an NCOs. So keep up your drive and passion to be an NCO volunteer for every board you can. This may mean going to the first Sargent and expressing your desires but make sure you do this in the proper milatary way.

Firstly, if being overlooked is the reason you want a promotion, you are not ready to become a SGT.

You need to show you can be a good leader, and good leaders don't work for recognition. Just focus on your job, when appropriate, do more than that. Don't bicker about your leadership.

Speaking of leadership, the best way to promote is to ask yours. Your team leader/squad leader should be able to further assist and guide you.

First question is, have you been to WLC yet? If you are a SPC, even as a PFC you should talk you Squad Leader into getting in to the school. How long have you been in your unit? This always a big deal, if you are new they might want you to continue to prove yourself awhile to show what your strengths are. I was a team leader for 3 years and if someone new came a long that had the time and grade to unseat me I had to be ready to either continuing to prove myself or be prepared to step one spot over. Motivation is an every day need not almost every day.

Well first off stop referring to them as "joes" and saying they don't give you any lip. You sound like you're probably a dick and that is not a good leadership trait. I recommend memorizing the Creed of the Noncommissioned Officer, then progress into understanding it.

If I knew then what I know now...

Shortly before my ETS, around 1976, the Army came out with a new reg saying anyone who wanted to make Sgt had to go to the NCO Academy FIRST. Before that, they were making people ACTING Sergeant left and right, and they could go to the Academy at some point later. I asked everyone from my TC and 1st Sgt to the Bn Sgt Major to be put on the list for the NCO Academy. Every month a new list came out, and every month my name wasn't on it.

Meanwhile, my 1st Sgt, who used to be my Plt Sgt, made two guys who used to be on his tank crew Acting CORPORALS... clever, eh... mostly because they were the best coffee-getters he'd ever seen.

So I finally decided that if that was what they wanted for "NCOs", they didn't want me. My ETS came, and I left.

Now, what I maybe SHOULD have done was re-up for anywhere else BUT there, and gone after my stripes at Ft Knox or Ft Hood. If I had, maybe I would have retired in 1991.

SPC O Quinn,
How much time in grade do you have?
Does your Company have an OML (Order of Merit List)? Are you AC or Reserve?

Don't keep thinking like a Specialist. Start thinking like a SSG.

It was like that for me at my first duty station, but I did my time there and moved on. Even though I stayed in the same brigade, I moved to a different post and eventually god E-5. You will have to start over again, but once you get it will be worth.

You need to show leadership qualities to get those ranks also take the classes to advance.

The best thing to do is keep on keeping on eventually someone will take notice don't lose faith it may take you going downrange but it will happen keep it up you got this