Socializing with the Boss seen as good for career executive survey finds

Having dinner with the boss this holiday season? It could give your career a boost, according to a survey conducted by executive job search service TheLadders.com. According to the companyís survey of 640 executives in the $100k job market, 55% believe that participating in social activities is good for their careers.

Though it is common to hear about holiday party faux pas and alcohol-laced improprieties, very few of the executives surveyed felt it was better to avoid social contact with superiors. Only 8% of the surveyís respondents said that participating in social activities with the boss is ìnot worth the riskî and 10% said it is altogether ìunimportant.î Twenty seven percent of respondents called fraternizing with superiors ìa necessity (they) would rather live without.

The survey of registered $100k executives was conducted on TheLadders.com Web site from November 8, 2004 through December 14, 2004. The margin of error is 3.87%.

In a related survey of 584 executives, TheLadders.com asked about the types of social activities executives commonly participated in with their superiors. The most common response was dinner, which claimed 48% of the vote. Golf and sporting activities were second on the list with 25%. Eight percent have attended sporting events with their superiors and 3% have attended the theater. Seventeen percent said they have not engaged in any social activities with the boss. This survey was also conducted from November 8, 2004 through December 14, 2004, with a margin of error of 4.05%.

ìFace time with your superiors is critical to career success,î explained TheLadders.com founder and president, Marc Cenedella. ìWhile itís more common to hear the ëdinner with the boss horror story,í the vast majority of out-of-office experiences produce good results. Executives should really look at the office holiday party or dinner with the boss as an opportunity to cast themselves in a multi-dimensional light.î

Now reaching over 207,000 readers and featuring over 3,000 new $100k job listings each week, TheLadders.com is the largest online job search service catering exclusively to the $100k market. Marc Cenedella founded TheLadders.com in July 2003 after a tenure as Senior Vice President, Finance & Operations, at HotJobs.com, ultimately shepherding that companyís sale to Yahoo, Inc. (NASD: YHOO) in 2002. In May 2004 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by award-winning marketing newsletter, MarketingSherpa, which cited TheLadders.comís unique business model as a key to its sustained growth.