Career advice still mostly uses the ladder metaphor.

You climb, move up, get promoted, and maybe reach the next level.

It’s a clean image. It’s also not how most careers actually work anymore, and probably wasn’t how the good ones ever worked.

A ladder assumes the destination is up, and the path is straight, and the rungs are already there.

Most people who do interesting work over time aren’t climbing anything.

They’re navigating. Different thing entirely.