today we decode the invisible career ladder that exists in every company. the one that determines your actual trajectory, not the one in your employee handbook.
if you haven’t done the visualisation & decoding, please do that first.
every company runs on a similar invisible ladder. but most people discover it through painful trial and error. ten years into their career. after three lateral moves disguised as promotions. after realizing their "head of product" title at a 20-person startup means less than "senior pm" at google.
you just can't see it. think about your last job search. you filtered by years of experience, maybe salary bands. but did anyone map out where "senior manager" actually sits in the hierarchy? or explain why some directors report to other directors?
others add fancy prefixes. but strip away the corporate creativity and you'll find the same skeleton.
you chase the wrong roles. you negotiate from the wrong position. you wonder why your "manager" title at a startup doesn't translate to "manager" at microsoft.
titles are contextual, but levels are universal. a series a startup might call you "head of marketing" when you're really operating at a manager level. a fortune 500 might label you "manager L3" for the exact same scope. understanding this saves you from taking lateral moves disguised as promotions.
let me show you what shifts as you climb. not the politics or the meetings. the real work. the stuff that determines whether you can leave at 7 p.m. for family dinner or you're reviewing decks until midnight.
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feeling curious? click all of them. 👇🏻 👇🏻 👇🏻
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