Esoteric society boosted career (5)
I believe the answer is:
speed
'career' is the definition.
(career can mean to run or rush around)
'esoteric society boosted' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'society' could be 's' (common abbreviation in names of organisations) and 's' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'peed' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for speed that I've seen before include "Move quickly (and illegally?)" , "The going rate" , "Swiftness" , "Rtae of progress" , "make rapid progress" .)