如何成为一家大型上市公司的CEO？

爱思英语编者按：希望登上职业巅峰的年轻人请注意，最好不要频繁跳槽。一项研究表明，越来越多的大公司更倾向于从公司内部挑选CEO。拥有财务和工程类背景的内部管理者尤其受到董事会青睐。

Note to Millennials, and anyone else with a frequent urge to change jobs: If you want to be CEO someday, pick an employer where you can see yourself staying for at least 10 years, or possibly a lot longer. Then get ready to hang in there for the long haul.

Rumors of the death of employee loyalty have been greatly exaggerated, according to a new study from consulting firm Feigen Advisors. Almost 70% of the 29 chief executives appointed at the biggest 250 companies in the S&P 500 last year had been with their companies for at least a decade, and one-third had spent more than 25 years there. “Overall, nearly 90% of new CEOs were promoted from inside the company,” the report notes.

These chiefs—including Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Mary Barra at GM, and Doug McMillon at Wal-Mart—run companies with a combined 5.3 million employees. Total revenues exceed $1.8 trillion, more than the GDP of India and nearly three times that of Switzerland. The firms’ “enormous economic clout,” says Mark Feigen, helps explain why boards of directors these days like to “go with the known quantity, [choosing] seasoned in-house leaders who have proven themselves for many years.”

What’s the most common route to the top? Finance. “Serving as CFO enhances the odds of winning the top spot,” says the study, “underscoring directors’ increasing preference for leaders with financial expertise.” A background in engineering ran a close second. Don’t have an MBA? No worries. Neither do two-thirds of these CEOs.

These larger companies are also “more willing to appoint a woman CEO, especially one who has risen through the ranks” than the rest of the S&P 500, the report notes, pointing out that 10% of the biggest enterprises now have CEOs who are women, versus just 4% for the S&P 500 overall. The female CEOs reached the top after working at their companies for an average of 26 years.

那些总想换工作的80后90后请注意：如果你希望有朝一日能够成为一名CEO，选择雇主时，你应该预测自己能够在那里工作十年甚至更长的时间，然后就做好长期扎根的准备。

咨询公司Feigen Advisors的最新研究显示，关于员工忠诚度已经不复存在的流言实在是过于夸张。在最大的250家标准普尔500指数公司去年任命的29位首席执行官中，有70%在公司工作的时间不少于10年，有三分之一在一家公司工作超过25年。这份报告称：“总体而言，近90%的新任CEO来自公司内部。”

这些首席执行官包括微软的萨蒂亚·纳德拉、通用汽车的玛丽·巴拉、沃尔玛的董明伦等，其执掌公司的员工总数达到530万人，总收入超过1.8万亿美元，高于印度的GDP，是瑞士GDP的近三倍。马克·费根认为，这些公司“巨大的经济影响力”也解释了为什么如今的董事会喜欢“选用知名的人，选择经验丰富的内部领导者，因为他们已经在公司的许多年中证明了自己。”

那么，就晋升公司最高职位而言，最常见的途径是什么？财务。这项研究称：“担任首席财务官(CFO)，将增加获得最高职位的成功几率，这表明，董事会日益偏爱有财务专业背景的领导者。”工程类背景紧随其后，位居第二位。没有MBA？别担心。这些CEO中，有三分之二都没有MBA学位。

相比其他标准普尔500指数公司，这些更大的公司也“更愿意任命女性CEO，尤其是从公司基层做起的女性。”该报告还指出，这些最大的公司中有10%由女性CEO领导，这一比例在所有标准普尔500指数公司中仅为4%。这些最终登上职业巅峰的女性CEO在各自公司的平均工作年限为26年。