Here’s the Quickest Path to Becoming a CEO: NBER Study

When Elliott Hill became Nike’s CEO two years ago, his LinkedIn went viral. Hill’s profile stood out because he spent his entire 32-year career at one company, starting as a Nike intern in the 1980s and working his way up to the top job — a kind of career loyalty that is increasingly rare. 

For most people who want to become a CEO, loyalty to one company may hurt their chances, according to a new report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The paper examined a sample of more than 50,000 U.S. CEOs and found that job-hopping is increasingly common and the quickest way to get to the very top. 

The study revealed that, compared to the year 2000, CEOs now spend about 10 more years working at other companies before landing at the company they will eventually lead. In other words, today’s CEOs are building long, more diverse careers before landing the top job. They are gaining experience elsewhere first, then joining a company and working their way up to CEO. 

“We interpret these patterns as evidence in favor of the idea that prospective CEOs transition across different positions, firms, and sectors to gather a broader skill set — pointing to a shift toward a boundaryless career in this segment of the labor market,” the paper stated.

The NBER also found that new CEOs tend to be older than in the past. The average CEO in 2023 was 55 years old at the time of appointment, up from 47 years old in 2000. According to the NBER, new CEOs are older because companies are unwilling to take a chance on less experienced leaders. They might choose an older leader who brings decades of industry knowledge and flexibility when it comes to strategy over a younger executive still building their track record. 

“Firms requiring strategic flexibility appoint older rather than younger CEOs,” the paper stated. 

Job changes early in careers have always been normal 

Job-hopping isn’t new. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that in 2024, the typical American worker stayed at their job for 3.9 years, the shortest tenure since 2002 and similar to patterns in the 1980s and 1990s. 

According to the BLS, older workers tend to stay in their roles significantly longer than younger ones, and when the workforce has more older employees, that pulls the overall average up. As Baby Boomers dominated the workforce in the 2000s and 2010s, median tenure appeared longer — but the underlying pattern of job switching hasn’t fundamentally changed across decades.

The National Institute on Retirement Security released a report last year that found that younger workers today are staying in jobs at similar rates to Baby Boomers and Gen X when those generations were at the same career stage. In other words, millennials and Gen Z aren’t unusually disloyal — they’re following the same pattern previous generations did early in their careers.