The corporate ladder is dead, but your career doesn’t have to be

May 22, 2026 — 5:01am

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Over the past few years I’ve mentored hundreds of smart, ambitious professionals who are deep in a career-related existential crisis. The conversations typically go something like this: “I’m freaked out because people all around me are getting laid off”, “I’m burnt out and fed up”, and “I can’t rely on my job for security any more, help!”

And honestly, I get it.

The traditional model of career progression that’s underpinned working lives – get a degree, get a job, climb the ladder, earn more money, have more responsibility, climb some more, earn some more – is growing wildly more precarious by the day.

We’re living through the biggest shift in how people work since the industrial era. Technology has leapt decades in a few keystrokes, redundancies are sweeping the job market and roles are being rewritten faster than educational institutions can keep up.

The promises of a traditional career – stability, security, safety – can no longer be kept by businesses sprinting just to stay in the same place.

The corporate........

© The Sydney Morning Herald