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"How do I become The Boss?" In a recent LinkedIn study of more than 459,000 professionals, economists tried to pin down that elusive insight.
The truth is that getting that C-suite spot is a tough climb, and not everyone is going to make it. The study revealed that the probability of a professional becoming an executive is just 14%. But in a surprising finding, it appears that changing job functions within an industry significantly increases the likelihood of moving up the ladder.
According the the economists behind the study, "each additional job function provides a boost that's, on average, equal to three years of work experience."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a woman with the same career profile as a man needs 3-1/2 more years of experience to equalize her chance of nabbing an executive position . In terms of UnCareer experience, that works out to about one more job-function hop to close the gender gap.
The study also found value in that much-debated MBA; an advanced business degree from a top-five U.S. program has the single greatest impact on likelihood of becoming an executive. But given that most people, by definition, will not attend a top-five U.S. MBA program, the study's authors recommend working "across as many job functions as possible" as the most effective investment in upward career mobility.
This kind of function-hopping provides a career benefit that most UnCareerists already know about: Exposure to multiple functions and activities results in a more holistic understanding of how a business or industry works , and successful executives need to tap into that kind of cross-cutting knowledge all the time.
This might seem wholly heartening to UnCareerists, but there's a small caveat: the study also found that switching industries, rather than job functions, led to a slightly decreased chance (about 3%) of becoming an executive. Then again, this slight difference may not matter to UnCareerists who forge non-traditional paths not in search of an executive spot, but as the most fulfilling way to satiate their curiosity and need for problem solving.
What's clear is that the old, linear rules don't need to apply. UnCareerists take heart: your unusual path might just land you in the corner office.
