Valuing friends, not grades
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Smartbrief on Workforce — tracks feedback from leading managers and HR practitioners. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter and feature analysis from SmartBrief on Workforce Senior Editor Mary Ellen Slayter on this blog.
Last week’s poll question: What is the most important factor in getting promoted?
- Networking, 33%
- Work ethic, 32%
- Experience, 24%
- Brains, 10%
- Education, 0%
Y’all take that old adage of “it’s who you know, not what you know,” quite seriously, don’t you? I agree that networking is important, but I’m shocked that education ranked so low, with only one person picking it as most important. (The percentages are rounded.) In part, that’s because education has played a critical role in my own career trajectory — my master’s degree in journalism lead directly to a promotion (and significant raise) at my last job.
Did these results surprise you? How significant do you think education is in getting ahead at work.
Image credit, iStock
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Tags: career success, education, networking
Categories: Bonus Tracks
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Posted by JB on June 17th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
The problem with education is that my company has no process for promoting based on further education. They say that your increased education should show up in your job performance; thus your reward should come in your yearly evaluation.
What if you graduate right after evals? You have to wait another year.
Your best hope is that your management chain was aware of your continuing education and has prepared (and fought for) an out-of-cycle promotion. That is, if they like you. So, who you know becomes the most important part of getting a promotion.
Posted by bamishe ojo on June 18th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
additional educational qualification like Msc, MBA PhD should be reflected in your work output and as such should not be a basis of promotion. With the falling standard of education paper qualification has been greatly abused moreso that people mostly cant defend the certificate they proclaim to have obtained. leadership position requires more of networking intellectual ability rather than educational qualification.