Opportunities on the Technical Ladder
Authors: Heinemann Robert F. , Brown T. F. R. 
Published: December 2007

A technical ladder is simply defined as a cluster of jobs that have common technical skills. Each rung provides an advancement opportunity for individuals which encompasses more responsible assignments, higher status, higher salaries and more important titles. Ladders were generally developed for technical employees after World War II. Exxon, General Electric, and Westinghouse are generally accepted as the pioneers in their establishment. The initial motivation was to encourage individuals with outstanding technical capabilities to remain in technical pursuits by providing recognition and career advancement opportunities separate and distinct from the managerial track. Technical ladders have grown significantly in popularity over the years and are used by virtually all major U.S. based petroleum companies. While not only providing increased status, compensation, and freedom for individuals climbing its rungs, the ladder also offers engineers the opportunity to keep their skills up to date in their chosen discipline.

Ladders are often referred to as dual or parallel as shown in Figure 1[1]. This describes the side-by-side existence of two general tracks of compensation steps available to professional level employees. On the right side is the managerial track that provides ascending levels based on increased responsibility for supervision of people and financial authority. The left side of the structure is the professional track that enables advancement based on increasing contributions to the company's financial performance through the application of technical skills. A true dual ladder contains a series of job steps in a technical track that roughly parallels the job steps up through middle management.

Mobil's technical ladder, shown in Figure 2, is a hierarchical pyramid in shape and incorporates all the principles of ladder theory as described above. The professional progresses up the ladder according to their performance, experience, and technical skills. The population at any level on the ladder is not influenced by quotas or restrictions in terms of the number of positions at each level. The Mobil ladder has approximately eleven "rungs" which are divided into three tiers. The first tier covers professionals from entry level through a technical milestone position called the "fully qualified professional". This milestone is the primary goal for all individual contributors and is used to recognize those qualified in all phases of a technical discipline. The middle tier describes an advisory group of professionals who provide technical guidance to less experienced engineers. Advisors are also expected to keep abreast of and apply the latest technology to solve complex problems. Advisory positions are roughly equivalent to first line supervisors. The upper tier covers a small consultancy group who demonstrate exceptional talent, skill, and knowledge. Consultants are considered company-wide resources, and their role includes advising senior management on far-reaching technical issues. Besides providing additional career opportunities for outstanding technical performers, the use of tiers and technical milestones also serve as important communication vehicles. Role models in the upper tier provide younger engineers with a road map of skills necessary for advancement to higher rungs on the ladder. While milestones are not formalized in the technical ladders of every company, Dalton and Thompson [2] have noted in their research on technical development, that virtually all ladders contain four stages of advancement: from "apprentice" (entry level), to "colleague" (fully qualified professional), to "mentor" (advisor), to "technology champion" (consultant).

An important point to emphasize when discussing the technical ladder is that while the ladder is usually developed in response to a company's demand for employees, they are shaped by political, institutional, and competitive forces inside and outside the organization, reflecting in large part the culture of that organization. Their effectiveness is also heavily dependent on the technical professional's perception about the ladder's integrity. In this paper, we examine the effects of four influences on ladder opportunities and the demands they place on today's technical professional. These are: 1) supply and demand for petroleum engineers, 2) restructuring, 3) interactive work relationships, and 4) skill requirements for the 1990's.