Job-hopping is now the fastest path to becoming a CEO—and company loyalty may actually hold you back

When Elliott Hill stepped out of retirement two years ago to take the top job at Nike, his Linked In profile had a viral moment. The new CEO had spent his entire career at the sports apparel company, starting as an intern in the 1980s before climbing the corporate ladder as high as it goes. That Hill’s resume turned so many heads was telling of how unusual the one-company career path has become. For most aspiring CEOs, in fact, company loyalty may have now become a liability. The typical chief executive profile has changed as of late. The share of executives leading companies who are women or people of color is rising—albeit slowly. CEOs are also more likely to be older, including newly minted ones. At the time of appointment, the average CEO in 2023 was 55 years old, up from 47 in 2000, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, published in April. The paper’s authors looked at a sample of more than 50,000 U.S. CEOs and put forward several explanations for why new chief executives are tending older, including that companies are increasingly looking to cut back on risk. They might opt to trade the potential dynamism of a younger CEO with more experienced and stable guidance an older leader can offer. But in corporate America’s search for expertise in top roles, boards are now valuing candidates who have worked in different roles across multiple companies, potentially even in unrelated sectors. For the company stalwart employee eager to climb to the very top, the reality of corporate America today means their loyalty is unlikely to go rewarded. The study’s authors found that, compared to in 2000, people who go on to become CEOs spend around 10 more years of their careers working outside of the companies they will eventually lead. Meanwhile, the number of years employees spend at their firms before becoming CEOs has remained roughly the same over the past few decades. “We interpret these patterns as evidence in favor of the idea that prospec