I’ve found the advancement path in corporate strategy can feel opaque coming out of consulting, so I’m trying to map the first 24 months to tangible milestones. When I made the jump, the pattern that emerged after comparing notes with folks across fintech, enterprise SaaS, and consumer looked roughly like this: first 90 days you learn the planning cadence, ship one exec-quality readout that genuinely influences a roadmap or budget. By six months you’re owning a workstream end-to-end with product, finance, or ops partners and you’re in the room for QBRs as a contributor, not a note-taker. By months nine to twelve you’ve led annual planning for a slice of the business, driven a pricing or portfolio change, or run a build-or-buy study that turned into an action. That’s what promotion packets tend to value: decisions moved, dollars saved or earned, leaders influenced.
Visibility matters more than we admit. One VP-level sponsor who will say your name in calibration often outweighs perfect slides. The biggest trap I saw was becoming the fire-drill deck factory; the tell is a calendar full of executive readouts and no time with operators actually moving the work.
If you’ve done this transition, what did your first 24 months really look like? What were your titles, the scope you owned, and the signal that unlocked your first promotion?
first 24 months? it’s calendar tetris and political cardio. you’ll crank decks for QBRs, then someone two levels up decides the narrative and you “own” execution without headcount. promotion timing isn’t a meritocracy; it’s headcount + manager air cover. the real signal is when a VP forwards your doc without rewriting it. until then, you’re an insurance policy for messy bets. sounds harsh, but tbh the machine rewards influence, not elegance of analysis.
titles are a naming game. “senior analyst” at mega-cap equals “manager” at mid-cap, and neither means you’ll touch strategy vs ops fire drills. the first year you learn who actually makes decisions (hint: not the weekly steering commitee). the promo comes when you save your boss from a public miss. perfomance reviews are theater; calibration is the movie. do great work, sure, but secure a sponsor who’ll go to bat when comp opens. otherwise you’ll wait… and wait.
joined as sr analyst at a fintech. first 6 mos was planning + pricing refresh. got promo in 14 months after leading a small M&A market scan. biggest surprise: less slides, more docs. any tips to avoid firefight mode?
quick q: how did you track impact? i’ve got exec readouts but struggle tying them to $$ saved/rev lift cleanly. managers want “one number.” ideas welcomed pls.
Titles vary by company, but scope is the constant. Months six to twelve should show you can move from analysis to operating cadence. If you’re still responding to ad hoc asks, propose a structured decision forum—weekly or biweekly—where options, tradeoffs, and owners are clear. That shifts you from a service function to a decision engine. Keep a living impact memo with baselines, decisions, and deltas; it becomes your promotion narrative. Finally, ask explicitly how your company defines “ready now” for the next level and request a mid-cycle calibration dry run to de-risk surprises.
Love this focus! You’re on the right track. Keep tying work to real decisions and build that VP sponsor. You’ve got momentum—your first promo will follow!
At a mid-cap SaaS, titles were weird. I was “manager” but my scope was basically senior analyst at big tech. What moved the needle was running a build-vs-buy study that killed a pet project politely. I brought product, eng, and finance into one doc and pre-synced each lead before the review. The VP pushed my doc unchanged, and that was the moment I felt the trust shift. Two months later, promotion packet sailed through.
From peer-reported ranges and public leveling data, time-in-level for early corp strategy roles tends to run 12–18 months in large tech, 18–24 months in non-tech or slower-growth firms. Titles commonly map as Analyst/Senior Analyst to Manager/Senior Manager. Typical first-year impact includes one planning cycle owned end-to-end and one monetization or cost initiative with measurable deltas. Reliable promotion signals include leading a cross-functional decision that shifts budget or roadmap by at least a mid-seven-figure run-rate and receiving calibration support from at least one VP outside your chain.