Corporate Ladder

Corporations are hierarchies, like the military. Just as armies have ranks from private to general, large companies have vertical series of management layers. Unless you're related to members of upper management or large shareholders, you typically need to start at the bottom and work your way up, one step at a time.

Intern to junior executive sales associate to senior executive sales associate to sales team lead to regional sales lead to district sales manager to VP of sales to senior VP of sales to COO to CEO.

That's the corporate ladder. You climb to the top of the pecking order step by step. Like any ladder, it gets a little more wobbly every time you take a step up. But the view keeps getting better, and at higher levels, when you fall off the ladder, there's often a big buyout waiting to cushion your fall.