The Old Career Path (and Why It’s Changing)
Remember how it used to be? You’re born, grow up, maybe six years old you hit kindergarten, then school. By 18, you’re off to college. Finish that, get a job, work till maybe 65, and then retire somewhere warm.
That was the plan for ages:
- Go to school.
- Get good grades.
- Get into college.
- Become a professional.
- Work your way up the corporate ladder.
- Retire with your savings or a pension.
A lot of people followed this. And honestly, for many, the standard 40-year professional career led to pretty comfortable lives, less stressful than being your own boss.
But guess what? That old model? It’s absolutely not working anymore. Not in every single way.
Cracks in the System: Recent Workplace Shifts
Things have really changed, especially just in the last 24 months. We’ve seen all sorts of new phrases pop up:
- Quiet quitting
- Quiet hiring
- Work shortages
- Labor shortages
What’s often missed is that these aren’t just random trends. They’re often happening because companies are still trying to use old ways of doing things in a world where workers have more power to ask for what they want.
The whole idea of the 40-year career is really starting to crumble. Some companies and workers are doing well by adapting, while others are struggling.
Trend 1: Workers Are Less Focused on the “Grind”
Despite all the talk you hear about “hustle culture”—people supposedly making partner super young while also running side businesses selling weird stuff online—the average worker isn’t grinding like that.
They’re actually becoming less ambitious in the traditional sense.
The Wall Street Journal did this survey. They talked to businesses in demanding fields that usually attract ambitious types, like:
- Law
- Business Consulting
- Marketing
These companies all reported finding it tough to get employees to “go above and beyond.” That’s basically corporate speak for working late or coming in on the weekends.
A law firm shared a great example. They used to have no trouble getting junior associates to put in extra hours for time-sensitive client work. But now? The new associates are saying no to weekends and late nights. This forces the partners to:
- Bring on more staff.
- Do the extra hours themselves.
Now, speaking from experience (as a former Investment Banking associate who definitely did my share of weekend sucking-up!), hearing about partners having to do the extra work? That’s just… beautiful. It’s wonderful, it’s marvelous. Makes you want to squeal!
Normally, this kind of refusal wouldn’t fly at these fancy legal and financial places. They often have this “up or out” rule for new folks. Within their first two years, you either get promoted to senior associate or they politely but firmly ask you to leave.
But here’s the twist: thanks to worker shortages, the partners can’t afford to just get rid of new graduates anymore. So, they’ve lost the main stick (the threat of termination). And the main carrot (the reward of promotion) isn’t looking as tasty as it used to.
Promotions Are Losing Their Appeal
The same Wall Street Journal article also talked about an insurance firm. They were having trouble getting people to accept promotions. Managers were often having to coax staff into taking more senior roles. Why? Because the staff preferred staying where they were, in their current jobs, where they could better manage their work-life balance.
When workers are more afraid of getting promoted than getting fired, you know things have fundamentally shifted.
Why the 40-Year Career Model is Fading
So, why is this happening? Why is the old path dying, and maybe that’s a good thing? It helps to understand a few things about money and work now.
Back in 2020, millions of people who never could before started working from home. And by being away from the usual office buzz and distractions, many people had a big realization. The tasks they were doing at work? A lot of them felt like, well, let’s just say pointless busywork.
The late anthropologist David Graber wrote about this, calling them “bullshit jobs.” He argued many office jobs involve tasks that fall into specific types:
- Flunkies: People who only exist to make their boss feel important. Think receptionists, administrative assistants, doormen. (When everyone’s home, you don’t need someone to hold a door, and software handles calls).
- Box Tickers: Jobs that just create the appearance of something useful happening. Like reading company newsletters or organizing those mandatory “fun” company culture events.
- Taskmasters: People who exist to look busy themselves by hovering over subordinates to keep them “on task.” But they often just end up distracting or slowing down the workers because they don’t want to seem like they have nothing to do.
Most office jobs might have bits of these tasks. But when you work from home, the need for many of them just disappears.
Employees quickly figured out they didn’t need 40+ hours in the office each week to get their actual work done. They could finish it in half the time! All those other hours? Wasted on pointless meetings that could have been an email, or doing other bits of pointless busywork.
(Note: Working from home didn’t get rid of all these types. Some, like Goons (corporate lawyers protecting the company from other lawyers) or Duct Tapers (people who constantly fix everyone else’s problems), still exist. If you want job security, maybe try becoming one of those!)
What Workers Are Doing With Extra Time
For those employees who suddenly found they had a whole lot of extra hours in their week, what did they do?
A survey of 3,000 workers by a software company called Qualtrics showed some interesting things:
- 40% said work had become less important to them in the last 3 years. They’d rather spend those extra hours on things like:
- Exercising
- Cleaning their home
- Going for walks
- Sleeping
- 25% said work had become more important to them and they looked for additional responsibilities.
- Most significantly, 36% said their career ambitions had waned. Climbing the corporate ladder just isn’t as big a deal to them as it was 3 years ago.
These folks are realizing something important. And it’s causing the same issues for companies that those fancy legal and investment firms are seeing. Many people just aren’t willing to put in extra hours and take on more stress to chase a promotion. Heck, many won’t even take a promotion if offered!
Four Big Reasons Why Promotions Aren’t Appealing Anymore
Business analysts have pointed out four main things driving this shift away from chasing promotions and climbing the ladder.
Reason 1: The Money Isn’t Always Better (or Worth the Stress)
This is probably the most disruptive reason for old-school corporate culture. People just don’t see the financial benefits of moving up the ladder like they used to.
Traditionally, managers and senior executives made way more than the folks working under them. But now, salespeople, tech workers, and tradespeople are often flipping that script, especially in fields with high demand.
Many workers are choosing to re-skill into a job that’s in demand where they can earn based on overtime or performance (variable compensation).
Think about it: Someone with experience in Tech, Pharmaceuticals, or Finance could become a manager. Or, they could switch over to a sales rep role, often salaried plus commission. Their base salary might be lower, but even average performers can pull in 500,000 a year in commissions. That puts them way ahead of many mid-level managers in the same industry.
Plus, in these individual contributor roles, you’re not in charge of managing other people’s performance or trying to get folks to work overtime or chase promotions. You’re just responsible for yourself and your work.
If you want to earn a ton more money one month, you can hustle and close more sales or work more overtime. If you need more work-life balance, you can ease up a bit without letting down a team.
Also, these skilled non-managerial jobs, especially in sales, are often safer during financial downturns than middle management roles. A company can keep going without team leaders, but they can’t if nobody is selling anything. For younger workers who have already seen two big economic dips in their relatively short careers, a job that feels secure when times are bad is worth more than a job that just pays a little bit extra.
Reason 2: Working Multiple Jobs (Yeah, Seriously)
Some clever workers have figured out how to make junior jobs way more profitable than managerial ones: they simply work two of them.
Working from home really kicked off this trend, which is super popular with tech workers. They’ll work two full-time jobs for two different companies simultaneously, collecting two salaries.
In the last two years, whole online communities have popped up where workers share tips on finding jobs that can be done at the same time and managing the workload. Some folks on these forums even claim to be working as many as five jobs at once, putting in 60 to 70 hours a week from their home office.
Even though one job can be a lot, experienced workers say the stress and workload of two or three junior developer roles is actually less than just one senior developer or team lead job.
For motivated people willing to put in the hours, this multiple-job route is financially better and gives them extra job security. If they get laid off from one job, they still have one or two other paychecks coming in.
Since COVID started, companies wanting good candidates really need to offer remote or hybrid work options to be competitive in the job market.
Reason 3: Promotions Mess Up Your Best Salary Strategy
This one’s a bit sneaky, but follow along.
For someone who just wants a standard 9-to-5 job but wants a higher salary, often the best way to do it is to change companies every two years or so.
Employees who stay put for longer can end up earning a huge amount (50%) less than their peers who aren’t as loyal and are always looking for better offers elsewhere.
The trick here is to leave on good terms, so you get good references. Getting a promotion at your current company can actually mess this up! If you were planning your scheduled job hop but just got promoted a month ago, your current company is probably going to be annoyed. They just filled that higher-level role and now have to find someone new again. A bad reference from a frustrated ex-manager makes it harder to land the next job and get a great salary offer.
If you just stay in your current role and pass on the promotion, you can rely on a good reference from the manager you’ve worked under consistently.
Reason 4: Life is More Than Just Work and Money
Simply put, more people just don’t want the promotions anymore because they don’t see the point or value compared to other things.
Being removed from the constant corporate environment (like by working from home) has made many people realize there’s way more to life than just making the most money possible.
A lot of younger workers feel a bit hopeless because they look at traditional goals, like buying a house or having a standard retirement, and realize that no matter how hard they work, they might really struggle to achieve them.
So, they’re seeking different paths:
- Looking for easier work.
- Exploring alternative lifestyles like video gaming or low-budget travel (living in a converted van, for example).
As more workers learn about these four reasons to say no to promotions and the traditional career path, companies are going to run into some serious problems.
The Problem for Companies
Promotions have always been a company’s main way to motivate employees below the executive level to do more than just the absolute minimum to not get fired. The promise of a promotion if you hit your goals is often seen as cheaper than paying big performance bonuses.
Sometimes, companies pay their top executives massive salaries not just for their hard work, but to show everyone else, “Hey, work like crazy, and maybe you could be a big shot like them one day!”
But if people don’t want the promotions, or they look up the ladder and realize they’ll never get to the level where they make significantly more money for less work, then this whole system breaks down. And that’s the end of the traditional career model as we knew it.
Workers are also realizing that just working hard won’t automatically make you a CEO. Reaching that highly paid chief executive level takes a totally different plan – for instance, sometimes starting with an engineering degree instead of a business one is part of it!
(If you’re curious about the other six steps that many Fortune 500 CEOs took, you should check out that video).
A big thank you again to Course Careers – they help people get ready for these new kinds of careers, and they made it possible for this whole “How Money Works” explanation.
(Sound of quitting)
“Did you hear me? I said I quit, Monty!”
“And since I quit, I can do anything I want!”
“Is that so?”
“Oh, I hope I haven’t upset you… bad!”