Career progression happens three ways:
(1) Get promoted at current company (hardest, most political).
(2) Switch to new company for better role (fastest salary increase, typical 15-25% raise).
(3) Move to different team internally (lowest risk, maintains seniority/benefits).Four key strategies:
– Keep weekly achievement log (for resume/appraisals).
– Have “work date” lunches weekly with other teams (builds internal network).
– Tell your manager you want to switch teams (they can help connect you).
– Be comfortable with risk (millennials overvalue stability).Most effective path: Internal networking then external job search if internal doesn’t work. Average time to promotion: 2-3 years. Average time to switch companies: 3-6 months active search.
If you’re waiting for your company to recognize your hard work and promote you, you’re playing a losing game. The average time between promotions in finance is 2-3 years—and that assumes your manager likes you, your team has headroom, and the company’s doing well.
The reality is that most significant career progression happens through job changes, not promotions. Professionals who switch companies see 15-25% salary increases, while those who stay and get promoted typically get 3-5% raises.
But here’s what most people miss: Career progression isn’t just “promotion vs new job.” There are actually three distinct paths, each with different timelines, risks, and outcomes:
- Get promoted (2-3 years, high political risk, moderate pay bump)
- Switch companies (3-6 months, high effort, largest pay jump)
- Move teams internally (6-12 months, lowest risk, maintains seniority)
The mistake: People default to waiting for promotions because it’s the path of least resistance. But “least resistance” doesn’t mean “most effective.”
This guide covers all three paths plus four tactical strategies to accelerate whichever path you choose—including the counterintuitive advice to tell your manager you want to leave their team (and why that actually helps you).
What is career progression?
Career progression simply means moving forward in your career path.
This can happen in many ways, such as being promoted, increasing job scope and responsibility, finding a new challenge/opportunity/employer, and basically getting the most of your career.
As an employee, it is important to plan your career progress since no one else will help you with this. Not even your boss since they are busy managing their own career progress, too.
In essence, you have to be a CEO of your own career pathway, to ensure that your work achievements are being recognized and that you’re more likely to get what you want out of your career.
3 typical ways a career progression happens
Get promoted
Getting promoted is usually what comes to mind when most professionals think about career advancement.
And who can blame them? More responsibilities, (usually) more compensation, a black-and-white confirmation that your company thinks you’re awesome – there are many things to like about promotions.
If getting promoted is square in your sights at work, check out our handy guides on this topic;
However, often getting promoted is rarely the easiest nor the fastest way of advancing in your career:
- Perhaps your team’s dynamics doesn’t allow your position to go up any further;
- Maybe your manager has a problem with you; or
- Work has simply not gone well enough this year, not because of lack of personal effort, but rather what’s happening in the markets.
If getting promoted in your role is looking tough, you need a backup plan.
And one effective option to ‘get promoted’ anyway is to pursue a better job at another company.
Move to another company
If you’ve done all you can at your current company, a natural next step is to look elsewhere.
Job-hunting can be tough, but the rewards are aplenty – a new start and a chance to adjust your career to better suit your goals.
For those who have not looked at the job market for a while, this may look a bit daunting. We’ve also written many guides to help the job-hunters among our readers:
- How To Write A Good Resume: 11 Actionable Tips
- How to Network: 7 Easy Networking Tips To Boost Your Career
- How to Prepare for An Interview: 3 Steps To Secure Your Job Offer
Getting your resume reviewed professionally can be one of the best investments you ever make.
Topresume has a free resume review that can help you brush up your resume/CV and make sure your work experience and qualifications are tweaked to their best potential.
But wait up. What if you’d really like to stay at your current company?
Perhaps what you want is a change in responsibilities and job industries.
In which case, you could also explore changing roles or teams within the same company.
Move to another job at the same company
Maybe you like where you are, company-wise, but would like a change in your role, or switch to a different team.
This is sometimes simpler to achieve than people think – but it needs to be approached the right way.
These are the 4 approaches you can implement to execute your career progress plans.
Comparing the 3 career progression paths
Before diving into tactics, understand which path fits your situation:
| Factor | Get Promoted | Switch Companies | Internal Move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timeline | 2-3 years typical | 3-6 months active search | 6-12 months |
| Salary increase | 3-5% typical | 15-25% typical | 0-10% (varies) |
| Effort required | Low (wait for cycle) | High (resume, interviews, negotiation) | Moderate (internal networking) |
| Political risk | High (manager must support) | Low (fresh start) | Moderate (requires current manager buy-in) |
| Skill development | Moderate (incremental) | High (new environment, systems) | High (new function, same culture) |
| Network impact | Minimal | Complete reset | Expands internal network |
| Job security | Unchanged | Lower initially | Maintained |
| Benefits/seniority | Maintained | Reset (vacation days, vesting) | Maintained |
| Best when… | Team growing, manager supportive | Stuck, underpaid, learned everything | Want change but love company |
| Avoid when… | Team shrinking, manager political | Job market weak, personal life unstable | Company culture poor, no internal opportunities |
Key insights:
- Fastest salary growth: Switch companies (15-25% bump vs 3-5% promotion)
- Lowest risk: Internal move (keep benefits, know culture, less interview stress)
- Most passive: Wait for promotion (but slowest, most uncertain)
Optimal strategy for most people:
- Try internal move first (6-12 months)
- If that doesn’t work, search externally (3-6 months)
- Only wait for promotion if timeline works AND manager is supportive
When to skip straight to external search:
- You’re significantly underpaid (>15% below market)
- You’ve been in role 3+ years with no promotion
- Manager is blocking your growth
- Company culture is toxic
4 useful tips to improve your career progress
Keep a constantly updated list of your work achievements
An online word document works best (so you don’t lose it!), but jotting it in your notebook will do as well.
It serves as a great record of your work achievements so far, and it is really easy to forget them in the hustle and bustle of work. Whether it is a presentation made at an event, a training course you’ve done or positive feedback received from a project, note all of these down as they happen.
This practice is a brilliant time saver because:
- It is a great tool when you are thinking of your career plans and where you want to be.
- It makes the year end appraisal process simpler.
- It makes updating your resume / CV much easier!
- It builds up your confidence for interviews since you’re constantly keeping in touch with your best work so far.
Have a ‘work date’ lunch at least once a week
Building your company network is one of the most effective ways to easily switch teams.
Try having a ‘work date’ lunch – have lunch with someone from another team, not for any specific agenda, but rather just to hang out and find out more about each other.
This creates a network within your company that can really help when you’re looking for something else within the company.
This method has served me very well – in the past, I successfully switched jobs three times in the same company just by having ‘work dates’.
Just ask: let your manager and HR know
If you are looking to switch teams internally, you may balk at letting your manager know that you want to leave their team.
But letting them know helps you a lot, with minimal risk and downsides:
- Your manager knows a lot of other managers. If you’re planning to switch teams within the same company, it is in their interest to help you do that as soon as possible. And by letting your manager know, you’re bringing someone in that can really help you make the right connection.
- Your manager will find out anyway. If you’re speaking to other teams about possible jobs, one of the first things they will look for in any case is a validation of your performance from your current manager. It’s much better for you to have discussed this with your manager before this happens so that your manager doesn’t find out through people asking about your performance.
- They can help you build the right experience. Letting your manager know also allows you to discuss your areas of interest with them. They can put you on specific workstreams that help build the right areas of experience, and sing your praises when the right people ask about you.
- OK, so they may now promote someone else over you in their team. But is that a big deal? If you’re already thinking of moving away from your current job, was that promotion going to happen? Would that have mattered anyway?
Having a discussion with your company’s Human Resources (HR) department may help too, as many large companies have an internal hiring program.
Make sure you let the right people in HR know that you’re looking to move teams, and keep a lookout for right roles on internal job boards.
Be comfortable with taking risk
In “The Millennial Economy”, Ernst & Young and the Economic Innovation Group conducted a new national public opinion survey of 1,200 millennials to gauge their views on a variety of issues related to the economy at all levels — personal, local, and national — and the challenges they face almost 7 years into the recovery from the financial crisis of 2007.
The responses given in the surveys clearly displayed a trend correlating with a resistance to change and risk-taking.
The more change there is in the career advancement method, the less appealing it was to survey respondents.
But this has no bearing on the effectiveness of each method – in fact, the inverse is more likely to be true.
The more comfortable you are with change, the less competition you have, and the higher the chances of your success.
In short, the more you put yourself out there, the more confident you’ll be about doing so in the future, and the more people will start to notice and remember you for your can-do attitude.
Take charge of your career today and pursue the change you want from it!
Career progression FAQs
Minimum: 18-24 months. Asking sooner appears entitled.
Optimal: 2-3 years if you’ve genuinely expanded your responsibilities beyond the role you were hired for.
Red flag: 4+ years without promotion means you’re being overlooked or blocked. Time to switch companies.
Factors that matter more than tenure:
– Demonstrated impact (quantifiable achievements)
– Skill development (taken on responsibilities above current level)
– Manager’s support (if they’re not advocating for you, timeline doesn’t matter)
– Company growth (easier to get promoted when company/team is expanding)
Don’t wait the “right” amount of time if:
– Company is restructuring (windows close fast)
– Manager leaving (new manager may not know your work)
– Competitor courting you (external offer gives leverage)
If you’ve waited 3+ years and no promotion, don’t wait longer. Start searching externally.
What to do:
Step 1: Understand why (genuinely ask)
– “Can you help me understand your concerns?”
– Reasons might be: timing, pending projects, no replacement available
Step 2: Propose compromise
– “What if I help train my replacement first?”
– “Could we revisit this in 3 months after [project] wraps?”
Step 3: If they’re still blocking you unreasonably:
– Go to HR (explain you want internal opportunity, current manager blocking)
– Continue networking with target team anyway (hiring manager can escalate)
– Worst case: Search externally
If manager is blocking you despite good performance, they’re a bad manager. Don’t let one person’s self-interest derail your career. You’re not trapped—you’re choosing to stay or choosing to leave.
Frame it as learning, not leaving.
– Instead of: “I’m trying to get out of my team, can I work for you?”
– Say: “I’m interested in learning more about what your team does. Would you be open to a coffee chat?”
Effective approaches:
1) The curiosity angle:
“I’ve been working on [X] and noticed your team does [related Y]. I’d love to understand how it connects.”
2) The skill development angle:
“I’m trying to develop [skill]. I heard your team uses that a lot. Any advice?”
3) The project collaboration angle:
“We’re working on [project] that might benefit from your team’s expertise. Could we sync up?”
1-2 internal coffee chats per week is normal, not suspicious. You’re “collaborating,” not “fleeing.”
When to be direct: Once you’ve built relationship, you can say “I’m interested in opportunities on your team—would you be open to discussing that?”
For salary: Yes. For everything else: It depends.
Switching companies wins on:
–Salary: 15-25% increase typical vs 3-5% for internal promotions
– Fresh start: No political baggage, proven track record elsewhere
– Faster progression: Don’t wait for “your turn” in promotion cycle
Internal promotion wins on:
– Benefits continuity: Keep vacation days, vesting schedules, 401(k) match
– Lower risk: You know the culture, systems, people
– Network preservation: Maintain relationships you’ve built
– Less disruption: No onboarding, no proving yourself again
Optimal strategy:
Every 2-3 years, get external offers to benchmark your market value. If current company won’t match 80% of external offer, it’s time to leave.
When external switch is mandatory:
– Underpaid >15% vs market
– Toxic culture (no amount of money is worth it)
– No growth opportunities internally
– Industry/company declining
Internal moves typically have less negotiation leverage than external offers.
Why internal negotiation is harder:
– HR knows your current salary (can’t lowball their baseline)
– Internal equity matters (they can’t pay you way more than peers)
– Budget constraints (team may have strict ranges)
Strategies that work internally:
1. Emphasize skill gap you’re filling:
“This role typically requires [X skill], which I bring from current team. How does that affect the compensation range?”
2. Reference external market data:
“I’ve seen similar roles at competitors offering [Y]. Is there flexibility to be competitive?”
3. Ask about future trajectory:
“What’s the typical promotion timeline and salary growth in this role?”
4. Negotiate beyond salary:
Title, vacation days, flexible work, development budget, conference attendance
Nuclear option: Get external offer, see if internal team matches. But this can backfire if they feel you’re holding them hostage.
Whichever method you choose to progress your career: be comfortable with change. Constantly challenge yourself to play outside your comfort zone, and get ahead in life. If you have any questions or need advice, I’d be more than happy to help. Just drop them in the comments below!
Meanwhile, here are some related articles that may be of interest: