The top 10 jobs to get ahead
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The top 10 jobs to get ahead

Few professional milestones can compare with a promotion. It’s a sign that our employers see the work we’re doing and like it. It often comes with more responsibility, and higher pay. And, perhaps most important of all, it sends a message to ourselves -- and to our peers and job recruiters -- that we are growing as professionals.?

But promotions are not doled out evenly. Some job functions, industries and cities offer far greater promise for career advancement than others.

With the help of LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team, we parsed the data to find out which roles enjoy the most promotions. We also looked at the regions and industries that have seen the most promotions over the past 12 months.

Click here to find promotion rates by industry.
Click here to find promotion rates by geography.

Here are the top 10 jobs where promotions are above average:

1. Product Management

Product managers are responsible for shepherding items to market. For example, a product manager at a company that produces smartphones will keep an eye on all aspects of the production process — from market conditions to delivery. People in these roles help bring order to chaos. Their exact duties vary depending on the company and product.?

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 149% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Fayetteville, Arkansas; Austin, Texas; Richmond, Virginia
  • Top Skills: Product Strategy, Product Road Mapping

2. Marketing

Marketing encompasses a big umbrella of job types. People in these roles can be involved in a variety of projects, from the promotion of a new product to a company’s internal communications. One nice thing about marketing roles is that they are ubiquitous across companies and industries. And no matter a person’s interest, they can likely find a marketing role in a field that genuinely interests them.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 94% above the national average
  • Top Regions: New York City; Boston; Austin, Texas
  • Top Skills: Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Marketing

3. Program and Project Management

You can find program and project management roles in a broad range of businesses. A project manager within the technology industry may be responsible for overseeing the launch of a new feature on a website, for example. Depending on the structure of a company, a program manager may oversee an entire arm of a business. By contrast, a project manager will be in charge of a specific project within that business arm.?

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 51% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Wilmington, North Carolina; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  • Top Skills: Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Agile Project Management

4. Accounting

Put simply, accountants keep track of a person or organization’s finances. However, this role offers plenty of room for expansion and variation. For example, an accountant may specialize in personal tax preparation. Another accountant may focus on forensics and dig into financial documents to find misconduct. People in the profession can also work across industries and fields.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 47% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Boston, Denver, Chicago
  • Top Skills: Account Reconciliation, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

5. Human Resources

Almost all businesses rely on human resources professionals to help manage their talent. Some people within human resources may specialize in employee benefits. Others may focus on recruiting. Sometimes people in this field will serve several roles — especially at smaller organizations.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 44% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Fayetteville, Arkansas; Boston; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  • Top Skills: Onboarding, Applicant Tracking Systems, Recruiting

6. Business Development

People who work in business development generally focus on finding opportunities that will ensure sustained growth for a company or organization. For example, someone who work in business development may work on finding a new line of business that can benefit a company’s bottom line and its customers. Business development staff may also keep an eye on parts of the country or world where fresh business opportunities are sprouting up.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 26% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Fayetteville, Arkansas; Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, California; Chicago
  • Top Skills: Tableau, Strategy

7. Finance

A large number of roles exist under the umbrella of finance, including bank tellers and mortgage managers. People skilled in those areas became invaluable during the pandemic, as customers and clients rushed to banks and lending institutions for support as the economy shook. And employers are quick to promote existing employees holding in-demand roles to ensure they are fully staffed to keep their operations running smooth.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 18% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Boston; Wilmington, North Carolina; Pittsburgh
  • Top Skills: Financial Analysis, Finance Modeling

8. Sales

Sales is a popular industry for all types of workers, thanks to the broad range of industries that rely on these professionals to get their products and services to market. People can also find a variety of sales roles within industries. In the clothing industry, a person who works in sales may interact directly with customers. Or, they might work on placing clothes in department stores.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 13% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Austin, Texas; Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, California; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
  • Top Skills: Account Management, Cold Calling

9. Consulting

Consultants are individuals or teams that are hired by an organization to provide expert, third-party advice on a specific matter. For example, a company may hire a consulting group to do specialized accounting for a project they’re working on. Or a business may hire a small marketing team to consult on a special product launch. The possibilities are endless.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 13% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Chicago, Boston, New York City
  • Top Skills: Business Analysis, Agile Methodologies

10. Purchasing

People who work in purchasing can serve several different functions. A purchaser for a manufacturer may be in charge of buying raw materials that a company can use to turn build its products. On the other hand, a purchaser for a department store may be in charge of buying clothes to sell to their customers.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 12% above the national average
  • Top Regions: Fayetteville, Arkansas; Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta
  • Top Skills: Strategic Sourcing, Procurement

Methodology: For this report, LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team analyzed U.S. internal promotion data at companies with more than 10 employees between November 2020 and October 2021. We excluded internal promotions from internship positions and promotions from C-Suite roles to partner or owner roles from this analysis. The internal promotion rate reflects the number of LinkedIn members who added a new, higher seniority position at the same employer to their profile in a job function divided by the total number of members with an active position in that job function. Top regions are metropolitan areas with the higher promotion rates for that particular job function between the Nov. 2020-Oct. 2021 period. Top skills are a selection of the most commonly listed skills on profiles of members who received internal promotions during the Nov. 2020-Oct. 2021 period.

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Jason Culbertson

Forklift Operator at The Home Depot

3 年

Real Estate...there is something for a good to do in trade. Let's make sure we leave some of these house's, lot's and acre's for someone else to participate in the experience. Think kindly.

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Mathen Thomas

Growth Transformations from Within | Strategic Advisor | Achieving 'More with Less' in Changing Times

3 年

Thank you for sharing. So true. Reading the article and under skills for Product Management, I would propose a few more (possibly not mentioned in expectations in job adverts) which contribute to the functions rise to top. Some of skills, I would visibly add for Product Management, are actually mentioned under the other roles (like cross functional team leadership, ……etc) coupled with influencing and demonstrating delivery of outcomes - key skills and competencies supporting growth in responsibilities (possibly promotion) in and from Product Management.

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Ayelet Yaari

Product Marketing Lead | EX-TikTok | SaaS | B2B | Go-to-Market Strategy | Market Research & Analysis

3 年

Hi Andrew Seaman, super interesting. Would also be interested in seeing the common carrier path for those roles. For instance, I'm curious about Project Management - We do not see many "VP Project/Program" titles, as opposed to VP Marketing or VP Product. Would be amazing to see the breakdown of roles and the glass ceilings.

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Ajay E.

Vice President, Revenue Operations: Consumer & Commercial Lending @ Pathward

3 年

Great Article

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Junie Walls

Entrepreneur Sales

3 年

Interested in marketing position. Preferably part-time.

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