From consulting to insurance: These are the sectors where you’re most likely to get promoted
Have you been promoted lately? Chances are if you’re in consulting or insurance the answer is a resounding yes.
Consulting and professional services and insurance were the top sectors for promotions in the past five years, according to a study from Emolument.
The salary benchmarking site asked 1,950 professionals if they’d been promoted in the past five years and this is what they found…
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Promotions by sector
Have you been promoted in the last 5 years? Yes | No
| Consulting & Professional Services | 68 per cent | 32 per cent |
| Insurance | 68 per cent | 32 per cent |
| Retail & Trade | 67 per cent | 33 per cent |
| Construction, Real Estate, Architecture | 64 per cent | 36 per cent |
| Apps, Web, eCommerce | 62 per cent | 38 per cent |
| Consumer Goods | 60 per cent | 40 per cent |
| Manufacturing & Industrials | 59 per cent | 41 per cent |
| Financial Services | 58 per cent | 42 per cent |
| Transportation & Logistics | 56 per cent | 44 per cent |
| Technology & Telecoms | 55 per cent | 45 per cent |
| Services, Tourism, Restaurants | 54 per cent | 46 per cent |
| Energy, Mining, Chemicals, Environmental | 54 per cent | 46 per cent |
| Public sector & Education | 53 per cent | 47 per cent |
| Media, Communication | 53 per cent | 47 per cent |
| Pharmaceuticals & Biotech | 48 per cent | 52 per cent |
Working for a large firm in a well-established industry paid off; it was one of the best way to obtain regular promotions, while smaller firms were much more restrained on that front.
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Consulting and insurance firms promote junior employees on a regular basis – as many as 68 per cent of employees in both sectors said they’d been promoted in the past five years.
Emolument said the constant concern over good employees moving on for a corporate job partly explains this; and a more impressive job title is often used as an incentive when pay doesn’t stack up to expectations.