[thefastlane]

moving beyond entry-level is about learning to do your job without any handholding. this usually doesn't take that long.

but any title progression beyond that depends on getting good at navigating the politics of your work environment. you won't get far without people skills. banks actually do a good job of mapping out what this looks like for analysts coming in, in terms of leadership skills etc expected for different titles. technical organizations, however, tend to leave their staff in the dark about this sort of thing -- which is a political move in itself, i suppose.

[mediocrejoker]

Can you elaborate on what titles at banks you're referring to, and what sort of skills are generally expected for them?

[Spooky23]

I don't recall the titles, but I remember at a bank recruiting event at my college they basically laid out the career tracks and were upfront about how you needed to quack to reach them.

In informal settings, they also talked about other things as well. If you're driving a civic, you will not be a VP.

[mipmap04]

I can agree with Spooky23. Financial firms in general seem to have career progression well defined and progression timelines are almost written in stone. In fact, it's usually an "up and out" atmosphere where if you are falling behind the promotion timeline, you should probably be looking elsewhere.