WHY CLIMBING THE CORPORATE LADDER IS A JOKE!

so we've all been told work hard be a team player stay late be loyal to your company network and you too can climb the corporate ladder which is obviously what this represents but i'm here to tell you that climbing the corporate ladder is basically a myth not that the corporate ladder doesn't exist because it definitely does but the myth is that you think you're the one in control of how fast you can climb this ladder i'm here to tell you that you're not want to raise that's not up to you want a promotion that's not up to you want more benefits that's not up to you it doesn't matter what you do climbing the corporate ladder is not in your control the first thing i'd like you to realize is that companies can basically flat out lie to you to get you to do things and there's really nothing you can do about it because it's their company and they can do what they want right it's a carrot on a stick for example have any of you ever experience the if you go back to school and get a degree will promote you and then they don't promote you or they say something like well we just don't have an open position right now but we'll let you know when there's one open and then it opens and they hire someone outside that's cheaper or they say if you go above and beyond we'll take a look at your performance and review it and then you go above and beyond and they say you didn't go above and beyond or they just don't review your performance at all now i'm not saying that you have absolutely zero influence into being able to climb the ladder i'm just saying that absolute control is not with you so i'd like to give you a reality check about how the corporate ladder actually works corporate ladders are usually one way up so you start climbing the corporate ladder you get here and they can just completely remove the corporate ladder out from under you there's nowhere to go up there's nowhere to go down so what do you do you either quit or you stay in this position that happens quite a bit you can be climbing the corporate ladder getting to that department that position that's really cool and then they come and just take the corporate ladder out from underneath you and say that department doesn't exist anymore that position doesn't exist anymore another thing that can happen with corporate ladders is that you could be climbing from the bottom and then you get to the top and you're about right here and suddenly they extend the ladder 50 more rungs and there's nothing you can do about that zero do you just keep climbing or do you get a different job at some companies when you first get hired they'll show you this fancy corporate ladder and they'll say look at all this opportunity that's here for you when in reality it doesn't exist it's just there to get people hired so that they can hold the carrot in front of you so that you think one day if you work hard stay late you too can climb this corporate ladder now another thing that can happen you're doing good you're working hard you're trying to impress everybody you get into this position up here at the top and then you get here and there's nothing here for you except a new job title and more responsibility which means more hours so that's fun too you like how this resembles like jail yeah let me out let me out of this job you'll never here's the thing about corporate ladders is that every company's corporate ladder is different different heights different lengths and one thing i don't think a lot of people think about is that they can change the structure of their corporate ladder at any time from when you get hired to 20 years of company loyalty down the line you could say i've been here for 20 years and i was really hoping to make it up to the executive or the board of directors whatever and they can totally just change everything and there's nothing you can do about it so let's say you actually want to climb the corporate ladder and make more money and have a more prestigious position what do you actually do if you go online and you google how to climb the corporate ladder you'll get all of these really dumb results like here's one from indeed how to climb the corporate ladder identify your specific career goals look at the bigger picture of where you are in your career path and where you want to be useless information determine the greater milestones you need to meet useless information because these milestones at your company can be moved every single time find the smaller steps you need to take well you can take as many steps as you want but again it's not up to you to decide if you get promoted or you get that raise or you get that project that you wanted number four set yearly performance goals with your manager they don't have to do anything if you meet those goals you meet all of your performance goals say okay i'm ready to get that promotion sorry that just we don't have the budget for it right now or ever because we don't want to promote you there's another one prioritize your professional development create a clear defined blueprint to follow with input from your supervisor start participating in career development opportunities on the job training additional online education formal classes blah blah blah like it doesn't matter you can learn all these extra things they still don't have to promote you it is not up to you there's some other answers on quora work hard and work smart stay rational offer critiques stay humble help your colleagues and newcomers remove bureaucracy as much as you can be the best version of yourself create genuine connection how is that supposed to help you move up the corporate ladder like that's nice in fairy tale land where everyone's nice to each other and that's how you make money and get promoted but that's not how it actually works how it actually works is work insanely long hours indulge in internal politics make your bosses feel good about themselves flatter their ego backstab your colleagues and every person below you follow the stringent bureaucracy rules lie and sheet to advance there's another answer which is pretty true let go of your personal life let go of your personal opinions abide by management work longer hours than anyone else work harder than anyone else no that's not if hard work was the key to success in life then the people out here dig in trenches in the dirt and these construction workers would be the billionaires of the world like that's just not how you make it and get rich it's such a meme don't have children or a family yeah that's true make your desk your best friend that's true attend all corporate parties with management if you're invited and if you're not invited figure out a way to get invited right play company politics that's probably the top one abide by hierarchy even if you find it illogical yeah you got to do a lot of things that don't make sense if you want to climb someone else's ladder i just think it's funny that we're all raised to believe that if we just work hard and go to college and be our best versions of ourself we'll all climb the corporate ladder one day and we'll all be ceos and make six figures and that's just not it's just not true look at this college that is like it's funny because it's for organizational leadership which i already roasted but they say typical steps to becoming a ceo step one earn a bachelor's degree this is stupid step one open a business what you want to be a ceo make a business now you're a ceo congratulations step two build on the job experience the position of a ceo must be worked up to on a professional level that's not true and even then you're not in control if you work up to being ceo investopedia how to become a ceo if you come down it talks about the story about jack welch he's the former chair and ceo of general electric it's an excellent example of an extrovert who was able to garner expect and who had vision even as a low-level engineer at general electric while there a higher-up took notice of his abilities and the rest is history what if the higher-ups didn't take notice it doesn't sound like that was in his control at all i'm sure there are a lot of people who are working real hard they just don't get noticed this is this is survivorship bias it says the bottom line although some individuals are born leaders most are made becoming a chief executive takes years of hard work literally just go open a business entity you can do corporation s corp llc hire a couple people make yourself uh a c-suite ceo now boom done now your business this is so stupid it says extensive experience in the company's field is desirable finally those that have worked their way up from a low level within the organization may have an advantage as they arguably know the company better than any outsider ever could and that's like we want to hire within first but that's not how it actually is to hire people outside of the company because they're cheaper they don't want they don't want to promote from within i saw this happen so many times like at my engineering job i saw this in action we had someone who had been there for like nine years he was the most loyal guy loyal guy ever and he would come work all this extra overtime he had a bunch of kids that he was trying to take care of but he wanted to be able to provide for his kids more and so he was trying to get promotion it was him and this other dude that was just joining the company had no knowledge of anything but he happened to be friends with the manager and he took the manager out to play golf one weekend and he got the job instead of this guy who had been here for nine years knows how to actually get results and make the company money and just he deserved it and the other guy didn't but that's not how you play the corporate game the ceo at my company wasn't even like a business dude he was like a lawyer and and he had his own private office away in the corner and and when people would walk by and he'd be in there people be like oh my gosh he's actually there like she's some guy he's so stupid start your journey to becoming a ceo today by enrolling in this very expensive college what what skills are you going to learn in organizational leadership to become a ceo shouldn't you know something about the product and how it's made there's this thing called the peter principle which is when people get promoted into management positions and then they're they're not qualified to be in those positions but they're somehow supposed to manage the people that are actually doing the things without ever having done those things themselves step three earn a master's degree why you need degrees for when you're the top person in the company who do you need a resume for to apply to yourself the main thing with the corporate ladder is that it is a carrot on a stick yes you can definitely climb it but no you don't have absolute control over whether you do or you don't you may think that you do but again you don't because these decisions are made by executives and conferences somewhere in some fancy hotel building eating an expensive meal without any thought of you they're just thinking of how they can make more money how they can grow the business they're not thinking oh bob in accounting is working hard staying rational staying humble helping his colleagues being the best version of himself and creating genuine connection that's not ceos don't think about that they're thinking who's working the longest who can we give them the minimum amount of pay raise to to keep them working that much and then they pick that guy that's really it's profit and loss that's all it is it's just business it's their company they can do that but as a worker i'm telling you you should think about these things if you really want to climb the corporate ladder here's my advice build your skills and go to companies that respect your skills and want to pay you for it because as your skills increase at one company the pay rate doesn't usually correspond to that so if you want to actually make more money get a better position switch jobs learn to disagree with people that try to take advantage of you and definitely here respect your time because if you don't respect your time if you give your time away for free no one else is going to value it either and you work in overtime for nothing why would they want to pay you for it you don't seem to care you're not saying anything you're just doing it because you're loyal right let's define what company loyalty is by the way i guess it would be you have better opportunities somewhere else but you choose to stay at this company because reasons you see in my mind what i think company loyalty is is them treating you like garbage and you saying thank you for the opportunity to be treated like garbage yeah i mean you'll see all this advice on like cs career questions and ask engineers like become an asset make yourself inexpendable or what whatever like you don't control that sorry bro that's not in your power you can't make yourself unfireable some dude above you got that power you may think that you are unfireable but you're not any time a company is deciding whether to keep you on or not they're basically just running the metric of how much of a pain in the butt is it going to be to replace this person is what he knows right now and him leaving going to be more annoying than hiring someone else and training them that's really what it comes down to there's not much more than that climbing the corporate ladder is a myth get different jobs when you can they get more money and build your skills and open your own business if you truly want to get paid what you're worth you remember like they're paying you something and they're making x amount of dollars on top of what they're paying you so that's what your actual worth is your salary plus their profit on you if you want that you've got to open your own business but anyways hopefully this has been a reality check for you enjoyed it click thumbs up click subscribe leave a comment let me know what you think see you in the reddit post probably you

Channel: Joshua Fluke

Views: 243,921

Rating: 4.9316325 out of 5

Keywords: joshua fluke, code bootcamp, web development, developer interview, developer jobs, corporate cringe, entrepreneurship, digital brand, how to climb the corporate ladder, corporate ladder, how to climb the corporate ladder fast, how to climb the corporate ladder as an engineer, how to climb the corporate ladder while working remotely, how to climb the corporate ladder without a degree, climbing the corporate ladder is not worth it, climbing the corporate ladder without a degree

Id: vuPeDtnp6fA

Length: 12min 50sec (770 seconds)

Published: Tue May 11 2021