Category: Society & Education

A friend of mine was unhappy with his work and asked when he would make it up the corporate ladder. I shared the following with him and thought it makes a good blog post.

Maybe I’ll elaborate on the corporate ladder part. Big companies (in your case) are big enough that you are actually insignificant. Not just you, everybody else is dispensable. These companies have stood the test of time and will stand even if the key people leave. This is what makes a company – it’s structure. CEO leaves, so what? There’s still many people under working despite his absence. People now know that if you throw a stone, you’ll hit a degree holder.

“There’s many others that can do your job,” says your boss. Sad but true.

The fact is that the corporate ladder is overrated and nobody should sit around a company waiting years over years to climb it. It just does not happen that way. Climbing the corporate ladder in a large corporation is mostly politics. Nobody I know sits around a company for a few years and gets promoted without meddling with some politics. Most who just stay put and “do their work” get at most a measly pay raise and hardly any promotion.

Don’t think about the ladder. There’s a closed door at each floor. You need to convince the person staying there to open it for you. There’s usually only room for one on each floor, and that person has to go up as well. If he doesn’t move, you don’t move either.

The alternative? Either work in a smaller company where your value is greater, or work for a company who would pay you more, or go start your own business.