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It doesn't matter. There are no entry level marketing jobs that pay $55k, even if the graduate was a business major. Salary is dependent on the position, not the major.
I think product managers in chicago start out about there. I know a few, so there are some for sure.
Communication ability comes into play quite often. If you ever sent an email as grossly incoherent as your post, you'd be capped out pretty quickly.
And since when is $55K "entry level"?
Kids these days. Man.
For an accounting or finance graduate, a 55k corporate job offer is entry-level. I know because I started one seven months ago at 53k with a potential 5% bonus.
I'm asking based on pay increases, ceilings, and ease of getting promoted. So lets say you have a marketing or accounting positions straight out of college at 55k a year. 2 years later you get a promotion. Does it keep getting harder and harder to get those promotions and pay raises as you get older. Do people typically top out on pay around a certain number of years or age? Its pretty easy and normal to get promoted when you start a career, but does the promotion curve just start to flatten out eventually for most people?
To answer your question at most corporations you expect annual cost of living increases in pay in between bigger bumps for promotions. Both will be driven by your performance and ability to network within the company. Standard non-promotion raises are typically 2 to 5 percent. Promotion raises are typically 7 to 15 percent depending on your rating and the size of the jump.
It is pretty well known that you need to go to another company to get a raise more than 15 percent.
The higher you get the harder it is to rise. Picture a pyramid if you will, there are 1000 staff positions, 300 supervisors, 100 managers, a hand full of VP's. That is a generic breakdown of most business unit structures.
To answer your question at most corporations you expect annual cost of living increases in pay in between bigger bumps for promotions. Both will be driven by your performance and ability to network within the company. Standard non-promotion raises are typically 2 to 5 percent. Promotion raises are typically 7 to 15 percent depending on your rating and the size of the jump.
It is pretty well known that you need to go to another company to get a raise more than 15 percent.
The higher you get the harder it is to rise. Picture a pyramid if you will, there are 1000 staff positions, 300 supervisors, 100 managers, a hand full of VP's. That is a generic breakdown of most business unit structures.
Hope that helps!
Thanks. This is actually the answer I was looking for.
To answer your question at most corporations you expect annual cost of living increases in pay in between bigger bumps for promotions. Both will be driven by your performance and ability to network within the company. Standard non-promotion raises are typically 2 to 5 percent. Promotion raises are typically 7 to 15 percent depending on your rating and the size of the jump.
It is pretty well known that you need to go to another company to get a raise more than 15 percent.
The higher you get the harder it is to rise. Picture a pyramid if you will, there are 1000 staff positions, 300 supervisors, 100 managers, a hand full of VP's. That is a generic breakdown of most business unit structures.
Hope that helps!
This is generally correct.
As a very rough rule of thumb, most entry level positions will have a path to a more senior position that is pretty easy to get. You will likely start as a junior accountant (or whatever) get 2-4% raises for a couple of years until you advance to accountant which would get you a 5-15% raise. Repeat again for the step to senior accountant. As long as you are competent, get your work done and don't cause problems, these promotions are generally pretty acheivable.
At this point people start to top out. The next step is generally management or something pretty specific in your field, for which you will need to show some particular expertise. Sometimes jumping companies makes this step easier, other times it does not. Your title starts to include words like manager, director, that type of thing. Not everyone will make it to this level. Some people don't have the inclination, others the talent, sometimes it is simply lack of opportunity. There are fewer positions available, because you are climbing the pyramid described by bostonaccountant. Within this tier their are a few steps, and the raise structure is similar to the entry level tier, perhaps a bit more generous.
The next tier is senior management. Executive directors, asissitant VP, etc.
After that, executive management.
Look at the structure of any large company. One president, several VPs, a bunch of managers and tons of workers. Just looking at this reality will tell you that not everybody makes it all the way to the top.
Boston Accountatn's answer is good for the general corproate business world. I would ask the OP, Jman, why they were not aware of this? If you have a business degree of any kind that is the model that most of the course work is based (at least in experince in my undergrad and MBA programs)
I am not knocking you but very curious if you were part of a business focused college experience that used a different model.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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The following are just my experiences:
Cost of living increases are pretty much non-existent. I don't know anyone (other than government workers) who is getting this. Pay raises are almost always a percentage of your starting salary. Those first negotiations are extremely important. If you lowball yourself going in, it will be extremely difficult to catch up.
Honestly? Promotions are extremely rare now. When I first started corporate, I would get promotions every year or two. Now? I have to change companies in order to move up the chain. I've seen that over and over again with just about everyone I know. I have seen people move up fairly easily to supervisory positions, but these positions aren't strategic and don't come with big paychecks, either.
I've noticed a few interesting things about promotions that have definitely changed over the years: several of my coworkers have gotten "promotions" without any corresponding pay raise. The company will give you a new title and new responsibilities without the pay and claim that there just isn't money in the budget. I don't know if the money ever comes. Also, the employee's share of benefits are now tied to salary. For example, if you make less than $50,000, your cost for health insurance is significantly less than for those who make over $50,000. I've seen coworkers accept promotions and actually take home less because of this.
I've also seen a big jump in people who are now considered salary as opposed to hourly. Some of my coworkers have taken promotions and end up making less hourly than they did prior to the promotion. Some are okay with that and some not.
If I had two pieces of advice for someone in corporate it would be to always take classes/get outside experiences to keep up your skills and learn new things and to always shop your resume as opposed to putting in time with one place in hopes of a promotion that might never materialize.
I made $38K out of school in the corporate world with a business degree. That was in 2010, so it wasn't too long ago. You definitely should not expect to make $55K as those numbers sound very inflated. I live and work downtown Chicago so our pay level IS adjusted to be higher due to the Cost of Living here. It isn't anywhere near California or New Yorks COL but it is higher than most of the USA.
I got 1 petty raise at my first job out of school to $40K. That wasn't at all what I deserved nor what I expected so I quit after finding a new job. That new job immediately offered me $52K starting. After 4 months because I saved them a ton of money and was doing very well they willingly gave me a $6K raise. That was a shocker, I never would have seen it coming.
My Third and current job offered me $73K after negotiations to jump ship from that other job. At the time they called me with my offer, I was smiling ear to ear because I felt like I just made the best sale of my life. Selling yourself is key to success as well. I felt bad leaving my second job because they were great to me but money talks. Another 4 months into my current job I got an $8k raise and a promotion. This one however was much deserved and I basically expected it at this point because my job duties were expanded and my performance was WELL beyond what was expected of me. At the time it was causing tons of stress and sleepless nights. That raise was to retain me and keep me motivated to prevent burn out at that point.
Since then I am staring at another promotion/raise, no clue how much yet though. All I know is that its sitting with HR. My story is definitely NOT what most out of college grads experience though. I worked my butt off to get where I am. I was stern with my employers and made known my expectations. I took risks that others wouldn't have, including having a 1.5 hour commute to my second job for the greater pay and greater experience. I also am a well spoken and VERY hard working individual. There aren't too many people who are still at the office at 3AM weekly getting stuff done. I take what I want with my position. By that I mean if I see a need in the office I fulfill it, to me there is no such thing as working within your job description. I am above no task even cleaning toilets. I am 25 now and doing well. Now leave all expectations aside and just DO! Don't sell yourself short and remember to stay hungry. Hungry for money, hungry for learning.
Seriously, for what its worth I started ay 35k in 2005 with a BS in finance, I have seen raises between 3% and 15% since and now am about at 100k.
Quit trying to brag no one cares nice math by the way a 10 percent increase every year would not bring you from 35k to 100k.
Anyways....
In the office world getting a promotion is more politics than anything...it has very little to do with worth ethic or how smart you are. That's why there are so many horrible supervisors and managers at companies now and very few people respect their boss.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonAccountant
For an accounting or finance graduate, a 55k corporate job offer is entry-level. I know because I started one seven months ago at 53k with a potential 5% bonus.
This is not really true at all I live near a major city and most finance jobs that pay that much want years of experience with creating reports and working with ERP systems and so on. I work in finance and study what companies want and what they pay every day. Entry level finance positions are generally in the accounting realm and pay like half that if you're lucky. Your claims about yourself may be true but I would say for the most part you just got really lucky and the vast majority of people will not be able to replicate what you did. Especially since you were probably competing against people with years of experience for the job. Very lucky.
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