Why Does Career Confidence Collapse After Year One?
Companies have gotten good at training employees. Showing them where that training leads is another matter.
Career Confidence by Age
Training satisfaction stays strong no matter how long someone’s been around (mid-70s favorability across all tenure bands). Confidence in reaching career goals, however, drops sharply after the honeymoon ends (75.3% in year one, 64.1% by year three to five). Older workers feel it too (73.4% of 25–34-year-olds see strong opportunities; just 58.7% of 55–64-year-olds do).
Training Satisfaction
All tenure bands
73.9%
Confidence in reaching career goals
Year 1
75.3%
Confidence in reaching career goals
Year 3-5
64.1%
Career opportunity perceptions decrease with age
Career Opportunity Perception “There are career opportunities for me at the company.”
Legend
Career Opportunity Perception
% Favorable
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
73.4%73.4%
68.3%68.3%
65.3%65.3%
63.7%63.7%
58.7%58.7%
55.8%55.8%
18-24 years
25-34 years
35-44 years
45-54 years
55-64 years
65+ years
When development is designed around skill-building but is disconnected from career clarity, it sustains competence without generating momentum. That’s where confidence erodes.
Bradley Wilson, Ph.D. Global Head, Workforce Insights and Innovation
Training vs. Career Goals by Tenure
Training satisfaction stays high while career goal confidence drops
Training Satisfaction: “I am provided the training I need to do a quality job.”
Career Goal Confidence: “I can achieve my career goals at this company.”
Legend
Training Satisfaction
Career Goal Confidence
% Favorable
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
78.4%78.4%
75.3%75.3%
76%76%
67.9%67.9%
74.6%74.6%
64.1%64.1%
Less than 1 year
1-3 years
3-5 years
When satisfaction with training stays high but career confidence wanes over time, it’s a signal the organization is developing necessary skills without connecting them to a believable future. It’s imperative to attach training models with employee experience data to help leaders better understand where the ‘promise is breaking.’ When leaders have those insights at their fingertips, they can scale development to clarify growth paths and make internal mobility a real possibility.
Charles Newnam VP and GM, Leadership and Learning Strategy
Who Sees Opportunity?
The employees struggling most sit in the middle: mid-career, mid-level, watching others advance while their own trajectory blurs. They don’t think the system is fair, either (individual contributors: 54.3% favorable on advancement fairness; executives: 77.5%). Benchmark-wide, barely half of employees trust how promotions are handled (56.9%).
More training alone won’t close this gap. Employees are building skills, but organizations often lack a way to verify understanding or translate that learning into measurable behavior and business impact. The work that matters is linking insight, skill, and outcomes that help employees reach their personal career goals.
Career opportunities and advancement fairness by job level
Career Opportunity Perception: “There are career opportunities for me at the company.”
Advancement Fairness: “Advancement opportunities are awarded fairly.”
Legend
Career Opportunity Perception
Advancement Fairness
% Favorable
Individual Contributors
Managers
Executives
63.9%63.9%
54.3%54.3%
68.7%68.7%
61.4%61.4%
76.3%76.3%
77.5%77.5%
Job Level
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Closing
About Perceptyx
Perceptyx is the Employee Experience (EX) transformation company, providing enterprise-grade employee listening, analytics, and behavioral science that activates people and delivers business impact. More than 600 global enterprises, including one-third of the Fortune 100, use Perceptyx’s multi-channel employee listening, AI-powered recommendations, and personalized coaching to close the loop between insights and action. With an unrivaled technology platform and an in-house team of EX Experts, Perceptyx makes it easy for managers, HR executives, and business leaders to align their key business and talent priorities and drive positive organizational change.
For more info, or to speak with a member of our team, visit www.perceptyx.com
