Latest / The Marketing Career Podcast with Fexingo: Marketing Jobs, Skills, and Career Growth / How Marketing Generalists Use Career Lattice Not Ladder
Transcript
- Lucas: You've heard the phrase 'climb the career ladder' a thousand times. It implies a straight vertical ascent — each rung higher, more senior, more money. But a growing number of mid-career marketers are rejecting that metaphor entirely and replacing it with something else: the career lattice. Luna: A lattice — so instead of going straight up, you move sideways, sometimes even backwards, to gain breadth before you push higher again. Lucas: Exactly. And there's some compelling data behind it. A LinkedIn study from 2025 tracked marketing professionals over five years and found that those who made at least two lateral moves — meaning they changed roles but not necessarily to a higher title — ended up earning 12 percent more than peers who stayed on a linear path. Luna: Twelve percent is significant. But I wonder — does that hold for every type of lateral move? Or only when you move into a role that builds a skill that's actually in demand? Lucas: That's the key question. The study also showed that lateral moves into adjacent functions — say, from brand marketing to product marketing, or from content to growth — correlated with higher earnings. But a lateral move into a completely unrelated area, like from marketing into HR, didn't show the same premium. So it's not just any sideways step; it's a strategic one. Luna: Can we talk about a specific example? I think that would make it concrete. Lucas: Absolutely. I've been following a case — a senior brand manager at Procter & Gamble. She had spent six years on the brand side, leading campaigns for Tide and Downy. Strong track record. But she felt she was hitting a ceiling because she lacked direct product experience. So she moved laterally to a product marketing role at HubSpot — smaller company, different industry, and technically a title step sideways, not up. Luna: That's a big shift. From consumer packaged goods to B2B SaaS. How did she sell that to HubSpot? Lucas: She framed her brand experience as a strength — understanding customer empathy, positioning, messaging — and she had taken a few online courses on product-led growth. HubSpot valued the combination of deep brand thinking and willingness to learn the product side. She got the offer. And after 18 months in that role, she was recruited by another tech company for a VP of Marketing position. Luna: So the lateral move effectively turbocharged her career, even though it looked like a detour on paper. Lucas: Exactly. She built a rare hybrid profile — brand depth plus product experience — and the market paid a premium for that combination. It's a textbook lattice move. Luna: What about the risk of becoming a 'permanent generalist'? I've seen people who move sideways too many times and never land that senior role because they look like they can't commit. Lucas: That's a real danger. The LinkedIn study also flagged that after three lateral moves without any upward progression, the earnings premium disappears and actually turns negative. So there's a sweet spot — two strategic lateral moves, ideally within a five-year window, then you need to consolidate and push up. Luna: So the lattice isn't an excuse to job-hop aimlessly. It's a deliberate strategy. Lucas: Right. And the best lattice moves share three criteria. First: skill adjacency. The new role should let you build a skill that's complementary to your existing stack, not completely unrelated. Brand to product? Adjacent. Brand to data science? That's a leap, not a step. Luna: What's the second criterion? Lucas: Network density. The move should increase your exposure to people in functions or industries you want to eventually lead. If you're an email marketer and you move into a role that works closely with the sales team, you're building relationships that could help you later become a demand generation director. Luna: And the third? Lucas: Market timing. You want to move into an area that's growing, not shrinking. Right now, product marketing, growth marketing, and marketing operations are all seeing strong demand. Moving into traditional advertising sales? Less so. Luna: That framework is really practical. I'm thinking about how a marketer could actually map their own lattice. Any tools or exercises you'd recommend? Lucas: There's a simple spreadsheet exercise that career coaches use. List your current skills down the left column. Then, in the next column, write the skills you'd need for your dream role two steps ahead. Then identify the gaps — those are your target skills for a lateral move. Then look for roles that let you build exactly those gaps. Luna: So you're not applying to jobs based on title. You're applying based on skill acquisition. Lucas: Exactly. And if the role builds two or three of those target skills, it's probably worth considering even if the title or pay isn't a step up. Because the compound effect over three to five years can be substantial. Luna: I want to push back a little on the idea that lateral moves always lead to higher pay. What about the opportunity cost? If you take a lateral role that pays the same, you're losing two years of potential raises and promotions at your current company. Lucas: That's a fair point. But the data suggests that for most marketers, the long-term gain outweighs the short-term plateau — provided the lateral move meets those three criteria. The P&G marketer I mentioned took a pay cut initially because HubSpot's cost of living was higher. But 18 months later, her VP offer was 40 percent above her old P&G salary. Luna: Forty percent — that's hard to argue with. So the lattice strategy works best for people who are willing to trade short-term stability for long-term optionality. Lucas: Yes. And it's especially effective for mid-career marketers who have hit a plateau. If you've been a senior manager for four years and you're not getting the director nod, a lateral move into a faster-growing function or company can reset your trajectory. Luna: I think one underrated aspect is the network piece. When you move laterally, you gain a whole new set of colleagues, mentors, and sponsors. That network often pays dividends when you're ready to step up. Lucas: Absolutely. The P&G marketer told me that her biggest takeaway wasn't the product skills — it was the relationships she built at HubSpot. Two of her former colleagues later joined her at the vp level company as direct reports. She essentially built her leadership team through lattice moves. Luna: That's a powerful story. And it ties back to the network density criterion you mentioned. Lucas: Right. So if you're a mid-career marketer listening and you feel stuck, ask yourself: what skill gap is holding me back? And is there a lateral move I could make that would close that gap while expanding my network? Luna: And if you found today's conversation useful, I want to mention something. The reason we can keep having these detailed, ad-free conversations is that listeners who get value from them sometimes choose to support the show. Lucas: It's true. If today's episode sparked an idea you're actually going to use, or if you've ever taken a piece of advice from this podcast and applied it to your career, that's exactly the kind of impact we're trying to create. And listener support is what keeps it sustainable — no sponsors, no ads, just useful content. Luna: So if you'd like to help keep that going, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that makes a big difference for us. Lucas: Back to the topic — I want to leave listeners with one practical action step. Open a spreadsheet today. List your top five skills. Then list the skills required for the role you want in three years. Identify the gaps. Then search for roles that specifically build those gaps. That's your next lattice move. Luna: And if you've already made a lateral move that changed your career, we'd love to hear about it. Drop us a note — we might feature your story in a future episode. Lucas: The career lattice isn't for everyone. But if you're ambitious and patient, it's one of the most underutilized strategies in marketing. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time.