How does promotons and pay increases work in the corporate world? (consulting, apply)
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Since always smartass. You could find the answer with a simple google search. Apparently entry level for you is quite a bit lower than for most. My post wasn't incoherent.
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.
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.
The program I am in is a typical management training program at a fortune 100. Everyone else in the class is 22 to 23 years old. We all just graduated in May, and started at the same rate. For the top 15 to 25 percent of accounting and finance graduates this is normal. What have you seen that says otherwise?
Average starting salary for a finance graduate in 2013 was 55k.
Employers post that they prefer experience so that people with it will apply. Generally they want to see that you are in the top 10 to 25 percent of your class, and have internship experience. Actual experience is a huge plus, but employers are looking for it because they are responding to market realities. There are a ton of underpaid workers with great experience that they may be able to attract.
Notice I specifically said "corporate World." A "smart" ass would know that jobs in corporate America normally require business degrees. An education major isn't going to work in a corporate office. Additionally, I also specifically mentioned careers in marketing and accounting. If you read the link, you would see that business grads start out at 55k on average. Surely you knew that accounting and marketing are business degrees. Perhaps your reading comprehension skills need some work? Class is over.
Do you actually have any work experience? You're very mistaken that jobs in corporate America normally require business degrees. Top schools don't even HAVE "business" as a major for undergrad students, nor do they offer "accounting" or "marketing." I went to a top liberal arts college and grads from all majors got jobs at top consulting firms and I-banks.
Nevermind the fact that "corporate America" is extremely broad, extending far beyond management consulting and finance....
I actually know very few people in corporate positions who studied business in undergrad. People enter in a variety of ways, either through some position which requires no specific background, learning the business on the job, and then being promoted, or through having an academic background related to the general field in which the business operates (could even be... gasp! ... education, library science, psychology, or whatever.)
Anyway, as for your question, the path varies widely and there is no "typical" scenario.
A promotion is something you apply for and compete with others.
A pay raise is based on performance and is usually restricted to either a set dollar and cent amount (0.25 to $1.00 in that range by 0.25 increments) or more recently a percentage of your current pay (1 to 5%). Whatever you start at, it goes from there.
Do you actually have any work experience? You're very mistaken that jobs in corporate America normally require business degrees. Top schools don't even HAVE "business" as a major for undergrad students, nor do they offer "accounting" or "marketing." I went to a top liberal arts college and grads from all majors got jobs at top consulting firms and I-banks.
Nevermind the fact that "corporate America" is extremely broad, extending far beyond management consulting and finance....
I actually know very few people in corporate positions who studied business in undergrad. People enter in a variety of ways, either through some position which requires no specific background, learning the business on the job, and then being promoted, or through having an academic background related to the general field in which the business operates (could even be... gasp! ... education, library science, psychology, or whatever.)
Anyway, as for your question, the path varies widely and there is no "typical" scenario.
Look at any job posting on a corporate headquarters website and a majority of them will require a degree that is business related. And my post specifically said "normally" requires business degrees.
And you are wrong that top schools don't have majors under the category of business. Every college has accounting and marketing majors. You said you went to a top liberal arts college. Well the majority of America does not go to a top liberal arts university, so your small sample size and experience isn't representative of the country as a whole.
Anyways, this is all besided the point. The reasons I posed that quote is because roadwarrier tried to say I was wrong by saying the average starting salary for a business major was 55k, by posting the lower average starting salary of 45k for students overall. My question was asking how pay and raises work for a typical business major in the corporate world. Roadwarrier should have been able to figure this out before trying to look intelligent and disagree with me just for the sake of it (like you are trying to do). IF your a business major and a teacher, then my question obviously doesn't apply there. Get it now???
Look at any job posting on a corporate headquarters website and a majority of them will require a degree that is business related. And my post specifically said "normally" requires business degrees.
And you are wrong that top schools don't have majors under the category of business. Every college has accounting and marketing majors. You said you went to a top liberal arts college. Well the majority of America does not go to a top liberal arts university, so your small sample size and experience isn't representative of the country as a whole.
Anyways, this is all besided the point. The reasons I posed that quote is because roadwarrier tried to say I was wrong by saying the average starting salary for a business major was 55k, by posting the lower average starting salary of 45k for students overall. My question was asking how pay and raises work for a typical business major in the corporate world. Roadwarrier should have been able to figure this out before trying to look intelligent and disagree with me just for the sake of it (like you are trying to do). IF your a business major and a teacher, then my question obviously doesn't apply there. Get it now???
What you don't seem to get, and I assume it's due to a lack of experience, is:
1. You said "corporate America", not business majors. Many people move into roles within corporate structures with degrees in math, political science, communications, education - you name it. Selecting one major and applying this as the standard across the board is flawed logic.
2. The study you're citing fails to account for the growing percentage of college grads who do not receive "real" job offers, and are instead pushing carts at Walmart or waiting tables at Outback. To run with $55K as an expectation for the mean is flawed. For the top 15-20%, sure - it's possible.
It's not disagreeing with you "for the sake of it", merely pointing out that if you extrapolate a hypothetical from a flawed base, you're going to end up with a statistical outlier, not a typical situation.
I point this out since I, like many hiring managers, face this common misconception regularly when hiring entry level employees. Kids fresh off finals with no real world experience and not a clue how a business runs or what a typical career progression looks like - expecting $50K+ Because that's what some adjunct professor told them one time.
Why do you think many employers want experience now, even for entry level?
Last edited by RoadWarrior12; 02-04-2014 at 07:12 AM..
And you are wrong that top schools don't have majors under the category of business. Every college has accounting and marketing majors. You said you went to a top liberal arts college. Well the majority of America does not go to a top liberal arts university, so your small sample size and experience isn't representative of the country as a whole.
Nope, you're wrong. I graduated from the University of Chicago. They definitely DON'T have any business majors for undergrads.
the corporate world is all politics the higher you get. If you dont believe that, then you haven't experienced real cut-throat corporate america.
I'm currently a manager at an IT firm and it does not matter if you have good work ethic or anything, it's who you know for promotions. People aren't going to promote you if they dont like you. As far as raises go, yes that is work ethic to some extent, but keep in mind that's only like 2-5% a year which isn't much.
In my position, I dont really do any work, all I do is play polictics day in and day out. People that report to me do the actual work.
Luckily I dont really need my job, so I dont have to be a Yes man like a lot of people are forced to do to keep their jobs.
Myself, I gradated with my BS and started a job at $35k in 2001. I made $47k the following year after a promotion. $55 3 years later from a promotion.
Then incremental raises. Then at my current job I'm at $102k which I've been making for the past 2 years. One thing to note. You must move companies if you expect to maximize your salary in a short period of time( I've changed companies 4 times). If you plan on staying with the same company, you will reach a ceiling, unless you plan on staying there for 30 years.
You sound very bitter and jealous. The average starting pay of business grads in public information, as I already posted a link.
And saying promotions if office politics just shows that your not well liked. Thats always the excuse that the office outcasts and underperformers use to justify them not ever getting promotions. You do realized that if your going to be managing people, they actually have to like you right? If not, then employees like you would constantly be complaining even more about how they hate their bosses and how unhappy they are.
I've worked at a Fortune 100 company for 10 years. I'm a hiring manager. Entry level Marketing/Accounting is $35k-40k.
Those pay websites and surveys are always hyper-inflated numbers.
Please learn the difference between your and you're if you want to get hired. That's something I actually use to cull applicants during the screening process.
Another good way is to leave, and then come back again. If you are a good worker, many times your company will contact you in the future with a promotion and pay raise to try to woo you back.
Actually, the past 2 companies I have worked with have an unwritten rule that you do not get hired back if you leave. So don't ever bank on that.
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