SDE I > SDE II: How long does it take and how to make that promotion fast?

Microsoft is tricky as there's 2 levels for each title: For SDE 1, there is both 59 and 60. To make things even more complicated, 58 also exists for certain cases, which means that those folks have to traverse 3 levels to achieve mid-level. Microsoft is also not generally known for fast career progression.

Anyways, from what I've seen, going from fresh SDE 1 (59) to SDE 2 (61) generally takes engineers 2-4 years. 2 years or less would be a "fast" promotion trajectory, but at the end of the day, everyone should move at their own pace and not compare themselves to other people in this way. I talk about this extensively in my promotion course here: [Course] Nail Your Promotion As A Software Engineer

How do you convince others of impact and take on more meaningful projects?

I have directly mentored 25+ junior engineers to fast promotions, and I have found that the #1 most effective thing a junior engineer can do to establish their reputation and get rewarded with more scope is to have stellar code quality. Actions speak louder than words, and for software engineers (especially juniors), the loudest and most impressive action is to write incredible code. Luckily for you and everyone else reading this, I made an in-depth course about that too: [Course] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer

Some great info about Microsoft perf reviews and promotions here.

In a vacuum, a promotion within 1.5 years for eng 1 to eng 2 is very good.