Hi, this is Stephanie Maas, partner with Thinking Ahead Search.

Today I wanna talk to you about a topic I've talked about multiple times in the past, but it seems especially relevant today, and this is the idea of professional advancement.

Professional advancement in the past.

My parents probably Your parents, definitely our grandparents.

Advancement was the corporate ladder.

This is the ladder, these are the wrongs.

It went one direction.

If you did it right, you went up it.

If you did it wrong.

You fell off the ladder.

Not good.

Sometimes you went down and could go back up.

It was kind of a one-way thing.

Or you could also just stay on one rung, and that's perfectly fine too.

Our professional environment has changed dramatically.

Let me suggest, instead of the corporate ladder, I really don't believe that exists anymore.

It's a corporate lattice.

You can go in a myriad of directions.

Up, down, diagonal, you can switch completely to the other side.

There are endless possibilities, but I do believe with change comes tremendous opportunity and I think we need to just stop and take a look at the corporate lattice and say, Hey.

Where do I see myself in two or three years?

You know, sometimes it is going straight.

That's perfectly fine.

But be creative.

Think other ways.

Think about, Hey, what skillset could I go do by coming over to this part of the lattice that would eventually maybe get me up here?

Can I develop that skillset right now?

What opportunities that maybe didn't exist a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, exist today that if I take advantage of them, they would put me on this part of the lattice.

Doesn't matter where you ultimately want to go, but this is a phenomenal time to really think through your lattice of growth, your advancement path, and make sure you are taking advantage of the opportunities that are there for

you.