Is there still a career ladder? − Lawrence Zammit

One of the indicators of the proverbial generation gap is the way we look at our job. There was a time when people looked at a job as a means to a living. Putting it quite crudely, thankfully one had a job as that ensured there was food on the table.

As jobs became more readily available, we started to look at jobs differently. It was fine to have a job to put food on the table but it was not good enough.

People’s expectations changed in that they wished to progress in their job and the concept of the career ladder came into being. We measured progress by the way we moved up and down the said ladder.

Since career progression was partly associated with the years of seniority in the job, people stayed with their employer for their whole working life to move up the career ladder. The job for life became an incentive as it provided security and the possibility of progress.

We had another change with the development in education and the creation of various specialised career paths. People started to look at their job as a means of personal development. We started to seek opportunities to enhance our knowledge with the result that a job with other employers started to appear to be...