What does it take to get to the "Executive" level at a company?

prefan wrote:

Those things often work, but I'd add one more - never stay in the same job more than 3 years. If you've been in the same job more than 3 years, time to look around and be willing to move anywhere for the next big promotion. Get a promotion every 2-4 years at the same or various companies and you'll set yourself up for being in the executive suite one day.

THIS x1000. Not seeing a clear path to the top, or the org does not respect your expertise or contributions despite overextending yourself? Run.

[quote]prefan wrote:

Having some brains and being able to work with people, as well as being able to sniff out and contain/destroy your enemies, are also very useful to have.

This absolutely happens. Letsrun, please be aware of this.

I had the best performance review of my career under previous management and received a hefty performance bonus in my fifth year at a company. We had a re-org and I had to work under a different VP. I did not want to work under her. I could tell this insecure VP was not liking my trajectory and she assigned initiatives to me and the team that I led that were complete wastes of our time. Frankly, it was very insulting work for the level of talent we had on our team.

We had to make budget cuts after a contract went sour a week later and guess who got cut with a 8 month severance pay?

Didn't matter, I still jumped to a reputable Forture 20 company after that job and probably make more than she does right now.

Be good, do good wrote:

Oh, and we've always been willing to relocate (my job is portable). I've seen a lot of folks tank their careers because they are unwilling to move. And I don't mean to diminish the difficulties of moving when both spouses have careers, but the reality is in corporate life, you make it work or you get stuck.

This is another good point. I think some of these relocations can be a bit of a loyalty test. Yeah, you seems committed...but can you do 3 years in the Wichita office?

I'm probably the outlier here for a variety of reasons. I oversee a real estate and private equity portfolio with a market value of just under $2B - I'm 60, so have been at this awhile. My education would not indicate anything relative to my position, but I attribute most of my success to hard work, luck and a few strategic moves - the same things that lead to my success as a competitive runner back in the day. Here you go:

Education - State school - bachelor's degree in Geophysics. Graduated at a bad time in the energy industry. Had a job for 6 months and was laid off, then not a nibble of opportunity in the industry in an energy town.

Moved and started over - Moved to a growing and dynamic city and convinced a land development company to hire me as a 'grunt' to learn the business.

Actively pursued personal growth opportunities even when that meant physically moving to other cities/states or economically lateral moves to other companies. Some of those lateral moves did not prove out immediately, but again, with hard work, eventually proved beneficial. Gained direct knowledge in large-scale land development and homebuilding. Then moved to a Wall Street based private equity group that was involved in all facets of real estate - development, construction, income properties/management, etc. Thankfully I was located out west and not in New York.

A formal education in business would have been very helpful, but that did not happen. More the school of hard knocks. I jokingly say to people that I have a GSD degree. I Get Sh*t Done.

Along the way I evolved into becoming a good people manager. I try to hire folks who are good at what they do, are a lot smarter than me and most importantly are a fit with our team.

So glad I'll never have to worry about these stupid corporate politics games.

Boston 18 wrote:

This is another good point. I think some of these relocations can be a bit of a loyalty test. Yeah, you seems committed...but can you do 3 years in the Wichita office?

I see people doing this and I still don't understand it. These same companies can fire you in Wichita, Des Moines, Omaha, or whatever lame city you choose to go suffer at in the middle of nowhere. Companies are not loyal to people no matter what they preach. They can do whatever they want from you after your three-year prison sentence in Des Moines.

I know my wife would straight up stay home and tell me to find an apartment in Wichita if I was so hell bent in climbing the ladder at some institution and just have me fly back home to see her.

I do understand going to a city where there a plenty of other options if it doesn't work out. People give SF, NYC, Seattle or SoCal a lot of grief for good reasons but there is money to be made there that you simply cannot make in Missouri.

There's no single track. From my organization I can think of people that I believe to be highly incompetent that have 'played the game' hard and done well. I can think of people who have been successful purely due to competence. Most sit somewhere in between. Really, being outgoing, a good communicator, willing to be political/brownose/whatever, having luck, being competent . . . any or all matter, depending on the situation. I would say that it's very difficult for introverts in general, but my firm just named a new CEO is definitely an introvert, so you never know.

a nice smile

my two takes:

- take 1: I worked at a startup that was acquired for ~$50m after 3 years. Our CEO was a lawyer at a decent-sized law firm and did undergrad/law school at highly ranked state schools. He was incidentally really great at networking/marketing and wound up w/ > 150k linkedin followers and was able to assemble a good team and not mess it up. I wasn't C-level here, but wound up taking away 1% as an early stage employee. -- key lesson here: get equity in the company and build a huge network.

- take 2: After that, I quit to do research at a top 3 university in the world and did that for >1 year until a connection recommended me for a position at a startup with a much higher ceiling and directly reporting to CTO. -- key lesson here: elite universities open doors that you can't otherwise open (both regards to earning potential and the connections you make).

- bonus take: Absent the traditional trappings (elite education, nepotism, etc.) probably the easiest way to get to a position like this is probably to successfully exit a startup as a CEO. Use that to get a C-Level position at a company valued at a higher $$. Repeat this process to move up.

Zero ethics, a crushed soul, and a cxck in your mouth.