In the age of the broken ‘career ladder’, here’s how to zigzag towards the job you want

Young people may have fewer paths from shop floor to boardroom, but you can still find your way to a more fulfilling role

Once today’s generation of graduates find a job, only some of them will find opportunities to advance.

Recently, I sat in a lecture hall with a couple of hundred final-year undergraduate students. Looking around, I thought about my own uncertainty at their age. 

When I was about to graduate, the future seemed unclear. I didn’t have a place on a company graduate programme like many of my classmates. Decades on, I realised that what seemed like obvious career ladders weren’t so simple.