Manufacturing Career Paths and Career Ladders
A career path is a group of related career specialties within a common career or industry cluster.
A career is a series of steps a person takes in the world of work. These steps are jobs, education, and sometimes volunteer experiences. Often these steps build upon each other: once you've had an entry-level job for some time, you may have the knowledge needed to advance to a position with more responsibility. A "path" is a collection of those steps. It shows many of the possibilities for jobs at the beginning, middle, and end of a particular career.
Workers often take different paths through related careers. Most careers don't have just one strict way to move from position to position. Instead, there are usually several options depending on your skills and interests. The order of your path is often called a "career ladder." A career ladder is just one potential path a worker could take within the wider variety of choices.
What Career Paths Are Found in Manufacturing?
There are many paths to advance within manufacturing. With increasing experience and more education, additional opportunities open up. For example, your career ladder could look something like this:
- Entry-level: manual operator with a high school diploma
- Mid-level: engineer technician with an A.A.S. degree
- Senior-level: engineering manager with an applied engineer B.A.S. degree
This dynamic career path tool comes from 360° Manufacturing and Applied Engineering Center of Excellence. 360° also has a career ladder you can use to explore fields in engineering and manufacturing.
