Dog People Are More Likely to Have Senior Management Positions, Study Finds

Most of us want to make it to the top, but the path there can be murky. There are few shortcuts to gaining professional success. But if you’re itching for a promotion, the best advice might be a lot more adorable than you expect: Get a dog. A survey by CareerBuilder found that dog people are more likely to hold senior management positions.

The survey included more than 2,300 employees. They were all full-time employees in both government and non-government positions.

Pet parenting deals, just for our kin

Get (totally free) deals for food, treats, accessories, tech, and way more pet parenting must-haves.

Get Deals

The results found that people who had dogs were more likely to hold senior management positions — things like CEO, CFO, Senior Vice President… pretty much all the titles thrown around on Succession. They were also more likely than others to be professors, nurses, information technology professionals, military professionals, and entertainers.

While dog people came out on top title-wise, one group has them beat financially. People who have snakes or reptiles were found to be most likely to earn six figures. Snake/reptile caretakers were most commonly engineers, writers, police officers, social workers, and marketing professionals.

But money can’t buy happiness, it seems: The group that reported the highest job satisfaction were — drumroll — bird people. People with birds were more likely to be construction workers, sales representatives, administrative professionals, and advertising professionals — but whatever they’re doing, they’re more pleased to be doing it.

Let’s not leave out cat people. Though they didn’t come out on top for any category, they’re living illustrious lives as physicians, medical lab technicians, real estate agents, and personal caretakers. No slackers in this group.

Of course, this isn’t a tried-and-true science, and it’s unclear whether the career or pet came first. It’s possible that engineers are more likely to get a snake because they’re more aerodynamic. Maybe bird people are more satisfied with their careers because they trained their parrots to compliment them on their job performance. Whatever the reason for their career wins, we can all agree life is better with a pet to come home to after work.