For years, the smartest move in tech was simple: get hired, get bored, get a raise somewhere else. Job-hopping was practically a career strategy.
That strategy has hit a wall. With hiring stalled and layoffs still common, a lot of tech workers are looking for something different. They want a job that lasts.
The Burning Glass Institute and the Schultz Family Foundation built a database ranking job quality at major employers. The dataset covered 12 million career trajectories across 1,750 major U.S. employers, with information gathered from platforms such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor between 2019 and 2024.
Each role was evaluated on three criteria: the likelihood of promotion within five years, the percentage of employees remaining for three or more years, and compensation.
The percentiles are measured against national benchmarks for each occupation, so the same job title can be a dead end at one company and a launching pad at another. That is why the list of winning employers includes not just tech giants but also insurers, agricultural equipment makers, and health systems.
The findings show just how wildly career paths can vary even inside a single company. At the typical firm, the gap between its best and worst roles on promotion and retention is 81 percentile points. That means the ladder is real, but it is not evenly placed.
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Take Chanel. Its fashion designers rank at the 97th percentile nationally for retention in their field, meaning almost nobody leaves. Its project management specialists sit at the 16th percentile. Same company, completely different experience.
These follow government job categories, and the IT project manager bucket includes product managers.
Amazon and Salesforce came across as the clear winners. Salesforce software engineers hit the 97th percentile for promotions, the 98th for retention, and the 96th for salary. That is the full package.
Adobe, Google, and Microsoft also performed well. Apple pays generously but offers limited upward movement - and workers tend to stay anyway. Uber has solid promotion rates but struggles to keep people. Meta is middling on advancement, and its retention numbers swing wildly depending on the role.
The most interesting names might be the ones outside Silicon Valley. Liberty Mutual, an insurance company, beats much of Big Tech on advancement and longevity despite lower pay. Software engineers at Liberty Mutual receive promotions at a rate 3.7 times higher than those at Meta. USAA and John Deere also show that you do not need a famous tech brand to build a strong career.
The bottom line: a well-known logo is not the same as a good job.
The old rules said to chase the highest salary or the flashiest employer. The data suggests that is only part of the story.
Goldman Sachs pays software engineers well but offers few promotions, and those workers leave fast. Its data scientists face the same problem without the pay premium. Deloitte's technical roles look weak on both promotion and retention. High pay with no path forward is just a job with a deadline.
Then there are places like Mayo Clinic. Project-management and systems-analysis roles there each land at the 99th percentile for retention, while salaries remain below two-thirds of comparable positions elsewhere. Workers are choosing to stay over chasing a bigger paycheck.
The takeaway is not that salary does not matter. It clearly does. But the analysis shows that strong, stable employers for specific roles still exist, even in a rough job market.
For anyone weighing an offer, the question is no longer just about the number on the page. It is about whether the job will still be there in three years, and whether you will want to stay. As of August 10, 2026, the data is clear: some companies are far better bets than others.
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