1) Net Worth: Financial Foundation

Let’s start with the most obvious reason to advance your career—dollar, dollar bills y’all. 

If your company recognizes you as a top performer or high potential employee, congratulations! You can expect to receive higher than average pay increases, yearly bonus payouts, special one-time bonuses, and annual equity awards, which can grow larger and larger with each passing year.

Even better, once you make it into the higher ranks, expect annual equity awards to be higher than your salary and bonus combined. This is when the boo-koo bucks start flowing.

Bottom line, if financial security is important to you, advancing your career in corporate can be a great option!

2. Professional Worth: Growth & Development

The sheer volume of programs, trainings, resources, and experiences available to employees in corporate America is enormous. There really is no excuse not to continue your education after joining the workplace.

And the higher you advance, the more opportunities for training and development come your way—all of which increase your professional value and marketability.

Each promotion opens doors to additional ways to learn and grow, including programs to help you become a better leader…

• Management Training– delivering training around essential managerial skills like how to set attainable goals, empower and motivate teams, deliver performance feedback and coach for results.

• Emerging Leadership / Accelerated Leadership Training– programs offered to employees who are recognized as high potentials and emerging leaders, and fall into one of two categories: 1) help employees in non-leadership roles become ready to take on leadership roles, or 2) help current leaders become better, more effective leaders.

• Executive Leadership Programs– programs to help senior executives become better, more effective leaders—but taken up a few levels. They often center around self-discovery, coaching and gaining even more skills to lead people, organizations, innovation and change initiatives.

And who knows, maybe someday you’ll want to take what you’ve learned to do your own thing… like starting a second career. 

3) Future Worth: Second Career

Advancing your career in corporate can also provide a great foundation for a second career.

In the future, you may decide you’ve grown tired of corporate work and want to do your own thing. Maybe you want to start a non-profit, work as a consultant, or become an entrepreneur.

I know plenty of professionals who were inspired to start their own business based on unmet needs they discovered while working in corporate.

Or colleagues who leveraged their corporate experience to start a new career path—marketers who started creative agencies, program managers who became consultants, executive who became coaches, etc.

The point is, the skills, knowledge, connections, and confidence you gain from advancing your corporate career can equip you for whatever you may want to do next. 

Advance Your Career!

Bottom line, advancing your career in corporate can be good for you – financially, professionally, and personally. Is it hard work? Definitely! Is it worth it? I think so.

And the great news is that there’s never been a better time to advance your career. Here’s three reasons why now is your golden opportunity to get promoted in business.