What is a career ladder?
A career ladder is the ordered sequence of job levels in one line of work, from the entry-level role to the most senior one, with what is expected at each step.
What a career ladder contains
Each rung has a title, a short summary of its scope and responsibility, and the skills and behaviors expected at that level. Some companies also attach a pay band to each rung.
Specialist and manager tracks
Many companies split the ladder above a certain level into two tracks: one for people who lead teams, and one for senior specialists who keep doing hands-on work without managing people. That way nobody has to become a manager to keep growing.
How it is used
It shows people what the next level needs, gives promotion decisions the same criteria for everyone, and gives each level a job description to hire against.
Example
| Level | Title | What is expected |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Junior Software Engineer | Delivers well-scoped tasks with review and regular guidance. |
| 2 | Mid Software Engineer | Owns whole features end to end with little day-to-day direction. |
| 3 | Senior Software Engineer | Leads delivery of a system and raises the bar for the team. |
| 4 | Lead Software Engineer | Sets technical direction across teams and unblocks their work. |
| 5 | Principal Software Engineer | Shapes engineering strategy and the hardest calls org-wide. |
Each step widens the scope: from well-scoped tasks, to whole features, to a system, to several teams, to the whole organization.
Source: Software engineering career path
Career ladder vs career path
A career ladder is set by the company: the levels in one job family and what each expects. A career path is one person’s route through their working life. It may climb a single ladder, move sideways into another team’s ladder, or switch between the specialist and manager tracks.
Related
- More real examples: Platform and DevOps career path · B2B sales career path
- Other definitions: Skills matrix · Competency matrix · Competency framework · Career framework
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