Unpacking 2024’s Career Development Trends: What 13,000+ Voices Reveal

Each July, I look forward to analyzing the past six months of data collected as part of our Multidimensional Career research project. Since 2022, we’ve had 13,000+ people complete the survey, offering us valuable data, and offering them valuable insights into how they most want to develop and engage with their work through the dimensions of:

• Contribution: Making a difference, being of service, or aligning with purpose
• Competence: Building critical capabilities, skills, abilities, and expertise
• Connection: Cultivating relationships, deepening networks, elevating visibility
• Confidence: Enhancing confidence, certainty, and trust in one’s talents and abilities
• Challenge: Stretching beyond what’s known and comfortable
• Contentment: Finding satisfaction, ease, balance, and joy in one’s work
• Choice: Exercising control, autonomy, flexibility, and decision-making authority
• Climb: Moving to a different/higher role within the organization

Since January 1, 2024, 3502 individuals added their perspectives to our database and a snapshot of their consolidated interests is captured in the chart below.

Interestingly, the chart looks very similar to our 2023 year-end results in terms of the sequence or ranking of the dimensions. There’s nearly no change in interest in Contribution, Connection, and Challenge. We see a slight decrease in interest in Competence, Confidence, Contentment, and Choice. And those decreases all combine to result in a 13% increase in interest in Climb.

A deeper dive into the data reveals a few additional nuances worth consideration – and conversation as demonstrated in these charts that offer a gender and age snapshot.

Again this year, we continue to see significantly more women completing the self-assessment. Year-to-date, women make up 71% of the dataset. (Might this in some way relate to Gallup’s recent findings that women almost universally exhibit higher levels of engagement in the workplace than men? For example, at the manager level, 37% of women are engaged compared with 29% of men.)

• The women surveyed express a noticeable increase in interest since 2023 in Connection, Confidence, and Climb.
• Men share an increased interest in Climb as well as Challenge.
• The most significant dimension shift for each age range analyzed appears in Climb with the greatest increase in interest expressed by those 50 years and older.
• Those in their 20s express a noticeable decrease in interest in competence, while 30-somethings express less interest in contentment and 40-somethings less interest in Choice as compared to 2023.

It’s important to note that while the numbers suggest that more people have their eyes on promotions and moves today, Climb remains the least interesting of the dimensions overall. Still, leaders everywhere need to be asking themselves, “Why are employees more interested in promotions, roles, and moves today than just six months ago?” Could it be that:

• Inflation or stagnating wages are causing people to feel that the only way to earn more is to change roles?
• Return-to-work mandates are leaving people with a sense of diminished control that they believe may be returned by attaining a more senior position?
• The changing employment landscape is making people wonder if they might enjoy greater security at a high level within the organization?

We’ll only know if we ask the questions and listen deeply to the answers.

Want to learn more about your unique interest profile? Complete the complementary Multidimensional Career Self-Assessment here .

And if you’re a leader who wants to elevate the development, engagement, and results of your team, you can learn more about the Multidimensional Career Framework and access easy-to-use tools, templates, and resources in Promotions Are SO Yesterday .

Image by Евгения from Pixabay