Working hard no longer enough to get a promotion. Here's how to stand out
Climbing the corporate ladder is core to the idea of an American capitalism that offers the opportunity for a high level of success to all, but it is currently failing many workers.

Forty percent of American workers are dissatisfied with the opportunities for advancement in their company, according to the latest CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey. SurveyMonkey chief research officer Jon Cohen noted that of all the factors studied in the survey, this was the factor with which workers were most dissatisfied.

This finding was not shocking to Bud Bilanich, a business professor at the University of Denver and author of "Climbing the Corporate Ladder."

"I think that lots of people feel that they should have the opportunity to move up a little quicker so they get frustrated," Bilanich said. "I think [40%] is a high number, but it really doesn't surprise me."

In seeking out a promotion, workers were confident that having a strong work ethic was the most important factor. Twenty-four percent of respondents said working hard would be the most help in receiving a job upgrade. Networking (19%) and receiving an advanced degree (16%) rounded out the top three.

The CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey was conducted from June 21–30, 2019, among a national sample of 7,940 workers in the U.S., with a margin of error +/-1.5 percentage points.

Bilanich said too many people believe hard work alone will open the doors.

"Everybody's working hard. Everybody's becoming an excellent performer. Working hard ... isn't going to be enough because your competition is also working hard and making contributions," Bilanich said. "To me, I think that hard work, and beyond hard work, the idea that your work has really produced some good, solid, measurable results for your company, is kind of like the price of admission."

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Ben Brooks understood at a young age that getting the promotions he wanted required something beyond just doing his job well. Upon graduating from the University of Denver in 2004, he worked briefly at Lockheed Martin before settling down as a management consultant at Oliver Wyman. From there, he bounced around parent and sister companies racking up promotions along the way. By the age of 30, he was one rung below the C-suite level at Marsh , a risk management and insurance company with over $6 billion in annual revenue.

Brooks said the most important factor in getting these promotions was not hard work or networking, but simply being a strong advocate for himself.

"I asked for [the better job opportunities]," Brooks said. "I didn't wait to get sort-of tapped on the shoulder or selected or picked. I told people the job I wanted to have or the promotion I wanted to have and then I asked what I needed to do to get it, and then I did those things."