Career Advancement is Among the Top 3 Factors for Switching Jobs

As part of our Talent Trends 2014 report, we asked 18,000 professionals across 26 countries to rank the most important factors that will convince them to take a new job.

Although the answers of passive and active candidates were a little different, there was a clear consensus: compensation and advancement are the top determinants when it comes to saying yes to a new job.

Here is the top 5 global ranking for both passive and active:

It’s interesting to note that for active candidates opportunities for advancement are much more important than for passives. While 31% of active candidates picked advancement as a top priority, only 23% of passives did.

Another interesting caveat is that although work/life balance is a top priority for passives (31% selected it), it doesn’t even make it in the top 5 for active candidates (only 20% of actives ranked it).

Oh and compensation? Definitely show passive candidates the money. 43% of them responded that compensation and benefits are very important, while only 30% of actives did.

Importance of career advancement to active candidates (by country)

While the global average gives you a rough idea of what the worldwide preferences are, it’s interesting to see how these differ on country-by-country basis. And oh my, are they different.

Here is the country-by-country breakdown for active candidates when it comes to career advancement. The green color represents countries were advancement is very important and red represents countries where it’s not.

Professionals in countries like Brazil (53%), Russia (47%), and Spain (46%) are the most motivated by the prospect of career advancement. While most other professionals are considerably more lukewarm – US (26%), India (20%), Indonesia (18%), Sweden (16%).

Importance of career advancement to passive candidates (by country)

Here is the map for passives. While the absolute numbers are lower than for actives, overall the same countries as above place higher value on advancement – Brazil, Russia, Spain.

We will review the details about how much compensation matters to candidates worldwide next week.

In your experience, what’s the single biggest factor that will get a candidate to say “yes” to a job offer? Let us know at @HireOnLinkedin.