career ladder

noun

variants or corporate ladder

: the series of progressively higher positions that can be attained in one's working career conceived of as a ladder to be climbed toward greater responsibility and financial success

… a twentysomething heroine working her way up the career ladder …

—Clarissa Cruz

The more skills you acquire and use, the more you can earn – even if you don't jump to the next rung on the corporate ladder.

—Jaclyn Fierman

Like most successful women in the pop-music industry, Rhone, 42, started off answering phones and watching men climb the corporate ladder to success.

—Lorraine Ali

… the kind of resentment that a man who has spent his life climbing the ranks of a large bureaucracy feels toward a man who leapfrogs up the career ladder through a special and obnoxious blend of deferments and degrees.

—Michael Lewis

Today as vice-president and director of global diversity, she works with the office of the CEO to ensure that women and people of color with the potential to move up the corporate ladder are identified and groomed.

—Rhonda Richards

Examples of career ladder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

After the Super Bowl, Klint Kubiak, 36, is expected to move up the career ladder as the new offensive coordinator with the New Orleans Saints. —USA TODAY, 8 Feb. 2024

So why must climbing the proverbial career ladder be a straight line upwards? —Bryan Robinson, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2024

In the cutthroat world of climbing the career ladder, landing that next title can feel like the ultimate aim. —Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 20 Jan. 2024

And DeBoer, 49, seems thrilled with the prospect of settling down in Seattle for a few years after a decade of bouncing around the country while working his way up the career ladder. —Ralph D. Russo, Hartford Courant, 7 Jan. 2024

Plumptre spent 20 years climbing the corporate career ladder but midway through it, she was struck by a sobering truth. —Susan Williams For Cnn, CNN, 31 July 2023

Even those who go back to work may face lower wages or get stuck on the career ladder, experts say. —Jessie Yeung, CNN, 28 July 2023

But getting to the top is no easy feat, and neurodivergent women experience extra barriers when climbing the career ladder. —Paige McGlauflin, Fortune, 12 May 2023

As for moving up the career ladder, Truchard said people should not exclude the role of luck. —IEEE Spectrum, 19 May 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined above