Firstly, thank you MN for your help and suggestions for my flexible working request which was approved!
I have been at the current role for 5 years (inc 1 year of mat leave) and it's all going well, I regularly get praise and targets are exceeded every time. I would like to further my career. With several recruiters contacting me every day for more senior positions, I decided to speak to my manager about it and ask about further progress within the company.
She said herself, it is very difficult, because senior managers/directors don't leave. We have people (including those in my team) who are very happy in the company and have been there for 30+ , 15+, 10+ years. So there's no natural progression in the traditional "waiting for someone else to leave" sense.
Manager has asked me to come up with some suggestions for how to progress and where I see myself in a few years. It is difficult without essentially "replacing" someone else, especially when the organisation of the company works well at the current set up of x amount of managers, x amount of teams etc. I'd like to be more of a decision maker and line manage someone...but again, without replacing someone, there's no where for me to really go.
I have a meeting next week with her to discuss possible options, but I really need to come with some suggestions. If anyone has any experience, I'd love to hear.
For context: finance role in a corporate FTSE 500 company