I have no complaints for now. Compared to my previous job, Nike is a fantastic place to work. The only thing that worries me is that many are already telling me not to count on growing a career here. Is that true? I’ve always thought Nike is a place where many have made great careers.
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I am also someone who has been at Nike 20+ years. Up until the last 3-4 years I would say things were good, not perfect, but I was fortunate to have career opportunities and felt my contributions mattered. For a variety of reasons I am no longer happy or fulfilled and gave notice last week for a new job. My point being everyone’s path is going to be different. Hear peoples experiences and take learnings from that, but don’t let that determine your viability of growing a career. Remember, Nike is an employer not a life style.
20+ years at Nike now. I know others that have been here longer than I have. Still liking it.
Yes many people have had great careers at Nike. The problem is that a much larger number of people have been here awhile, maybe been promoted once or twice and then they plateaued. Basically stuck at the same band or in the same job with little opportunity for advancing their careers. If you get trapped in this situation for much more than 3 years you have two choices: accept it and settle with the fact that you’re probably never going to advance further up or look for a job someplace else where you can jumpstart or restart your career. At Nike if you aren’t getting promoted at least every 3 years or so then your career stalls big time. Almost nobody talks about this but everyone knows it. It’s one of those weird things you’re not supposed to say or complain about even though everyone knows that’s how it works. I’ve seen a few exceptions but those are exactly that: exceptions. A lot of people just accept this because their job is at least sort of tolerable and they don’t really want to start all over again someplace else. So they stay at Nike, going through the motions but always being a little peeved below the surface because it doesn’t feel good to know you’re a capable person who can’t get promoted no matter what you do or how hard you work. Most employees will plateau before they hit the 10 year mark. At that point they have to decide what’s important to them…advancing their careers or staying comfortably numb as a cog in the machine. While hoping they don’t eventually get hit with the layoff hammer.