We used to see our careers as ladders. Going one way: Up. But is this still the true case?

With more focus on wellbeing and getting the right life balance, it's not necessarily all of us, who want to take on more responsibility and spend multiple hours on the job. So, is the ladder cracking into other more horizontal paths, or what is happening? 

This was one of the main questions in WORK 3.0, the podcast episode about the modern career ladder

 

 

Vertical, Horizontal, or Twisted Route? 

The guests in this episode, Katrine Schelbli, COO at Learningbank, and Morten Esmer, Head of Learning and Development at Dagrofa, have both taken the traditional career ladder going up. However, they also saw something new happening at our workplaces today. 

"It actually changed a lot (...) What I actually see today is a lot of passion around a lot of other areas than leadership. You know, being an expert into something, it could both be, the UX/UI design, it could be learning, communication, and other areas like that. (...) It's more about a passion to develop than going the classic career path," Katrine Schelbli says when she talks about what she sees from the workforce with an example from Learningbank. 

Morten Esmer sees a similar pattern, even though he works in a different industry: The retail industry. 

"In my everyday life, I think it's kind of old-fashioned, where we have this career path, where the next step is to become the leader. But we see more and more that people are walking away from that career ladder, and trying to become experts. So, it's the same, but we don't see it, however, as fast as in the tech industry," says Morten Esmer.  

Career Mindsets, the Future Career Path, and Much more

You can listen to the entire episode, and get insights on: 

  • What career mindsets we are moving away from and what new ones we are gaining
  • The personal career stories from Morten Esmer and Katrine Schelbli
  • Why we need to move away from the one-size-fits-all way of thinking careers - and how 
  • How to take care of all career types with the right learning at the right time 
  • Inspirational thoughts about lateral career movement 
  • What the modern career path will look like in the future