"You Deserve a Promotion!" — Ten Fields Most Likely to Fast-Track

LinkedIn analysts have been working overtime to track an ever-fluctuating job market—capturing data and taking industry pulse-checks as often as possible as people continue to leave jobs, pivot careers, and enter and exit the workforce. With the Great Reshuffle still in full swing, there's one worker cohort less complex to track—those workers who stayed put—and one metric that's easy to quantify: how fast those workers are getting promoted.

Below are ten sectors where you're most likely to get a career boost. And good news for MBS students! Product Management rolls in at #1, while MBS's integrated curriculum, experiential learning opportunities, and unlimited executive coaching sessions enable students to hone the desired skills attendant to each job. (Original article: Top 10 Jobs to Get Ahead - 11/30/21).

Top 10 Jobs Where Promotions are Above Average

1. Product Management

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 149% above the national average
  • Top Skills: Product Strategy, Product Road Mapping

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. 

Coming soon! MBS is offering a new concentration in Product Design & Innovation... we are creating a new set of courses in this area. Stay tuned! You can read more details about Product Management and the role of a Product Manager here.

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 Skills: Digital Marketing, Email Marketing, Content Marketing

MBS Courses: 16:137:507 – Market Assessment and Analysis for Business and Science

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 Skills: Cross-Functional Team Leadership, Agile Project Management

MBS Courses: 16:137:601 – Project Management for the Scientific and Technical Practitioner​

 

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 Skills: Account Reconciliation, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles

MBS Courses: Principles of Accounting and Finance for Science and Technology (16:137:530)

5. Human Resources

Almost all businesses rely on human resources professionals to help manage their talent. MBS students interested in this field may take business electives in this area.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 44% above the national average
  • 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 Skills: Tableau, Strategy

MBS Courses: Business Intelligence with Visual Analytics (16:137:553 05521) 

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 Skills: Financial Analysis, Finance Modeling

MBS Courses: Principles of Accounting and Finance for Science and Technology (16:137:530)

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 find a sales roles in nearly all STEM-based industries--from pharmaceuticals to engineering to information technology. The MBS educational model is focused  on  producing successful business-scientists who can Integrate advanced, STEM-based knowledge with strong business skills, and bridge the gap between science and business innovation.

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 13% above the national average
  • Top Skills: Account Management, Cold Calling

MBS Courses: 

 

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 Skills: Business Analysis, Agile Methodologies

MBS Courses: 

 

10. Purchasing

People who work in purchasing can serve several different functions. For instance, a purchaser for a manufacturer may be in charge of buying raw materials that a company can use to turn build its products. 

  • Internal Promotion Rate: 12% above the national average
  • Top Skills: Strategic Sourcing, Procurement

MBS Courses:

 

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. 

Author(s): Jen Reiseman-Briscoe Published on: 12/01/2021