The best career move might be the one you don’t make

“When you look at moves across companies, people often get pay raises, but they tend to move into jobs at similar levels of responsibility as the one they left,” he said. “It’s moves inside companies that are actually taking people up to the next level.”

The insider advantage

The book’s title refers to what Bidwell calls an insider, someone who has made an investment in the company, knows their way around and understands its culture.

“When you look at people’s careers, often the times they really grew in their careers were the times they stayed a while in the company and climbed the ladder within that company,” Bidwell said.

Familiarity with the organization is a big part of performing well, he said.

“When we look at managerial and professional jobs, you tend to find it takes about two to three years for people to deliver the kind of performance of somebody who knows the organization really well,” Bidwell said. “The first two to three years, you find newcomers have lower performance. It’s after about two to three years that penalty’s gone.”