Over is the new up in many jobs and industries. Learn how to use lateral moves and other off-the-ladder opportunities for career catapults and avoid getting derailed.

Are you looking for that next career challenge but unsure how to get there? Climbing the corporate ladder might not be the only way. Today more than ever, a career detour just might lead to your career destiny. At every level — including the top — professionals, managers, and executives-in-waiting commonly zigzag through several lateral lurches before stepping up to their destination position.

Why has lateral become the new way to the top? The recession is partly to blame — the hierarchy in many companies flattened and compressed during the recession, effectively eliminating rungs that were previously part of the expected climb.

Because of this reality, it has become more important to “think sideways.” If you don’t plan ahead by considering lateral rotations as part of your career development plan, you may end up stuck on your current ladder rung indefinitely, unless you find a way to take a larger-than-usual step up. Yet paradoxically, exceptional advancement is less likely if you haven’t taken the time to boost your experience and confidence with lateral moves.

Here is a helpful analogy: “If you’re stuck in a traffic jam and it may be hours before you’re able to move forward, it makes sense to change lanes and exit on a side road where you can more quickly navigate around it. Sitting in the traffic jam and fuming doesn’t get you anywhere.”

For advice on how to effectively turn a side step into a step up, TheLadders asked several career-development experts to weigh in:

1. Make It Make Sense. Without a strategic career path, lateral moves can become merely a merry-go-round. You must proactively plot your own career plan to make sense of diagonal and lateral moves. “Your employer won’t do it for you, so the first thing to know is that it’s up to you to pursue and land opportunities that advance your career agenda.

A great place to start is to envision your next “up” move, and then reverse-engineer the qualifications you need to make a serious run for that position. assess your current experience and skill set to determine what you might need to get where you want to go.

Ask yourself: Am I lacking hands-on operational experience? Proven expertise in a business skill, such as client retention? A working knowledge of a relevant slice of technology? What skill set would tee up my success in that position? By comparing the skills required by your next-step job to the skills you currently have, you’ll quickly see the gaps that a lateral move can fill.

2. Do What Needs to Be Done. Your informal self-assessment will likely uncover areas where your skills could be stronger to get you to the next level. Determine specific strategic actions that will help you reach your career goals faster.

If you are a project manager who wants to become a department manager, you might need two things: a stronger network outside your department so that your reputation is already established with your potential new peers, and broader exposure to customers and clients so you can show that you can drive growth as well as get work accomplished.

In this case, she suggested considering a short-term rotation to cultivate relationships with other departments and functions, or working on an assignment that puts you and your team on a customer-facing project.

3. Volunteer Strategically. It can be difficult to find time for volunteer projects in the midst of your primary career responsibilities. But strategic volunteering can be a powerful way to rapidly expand your network of influencers and to backfill business skills.

To spin community service into an opportunity for lateral rotation, join an organizational committee whose volunteers complement—yet don’t duplicate—your existing network. Look to your current skills for a logical toehold (for example, if you work in marketing, join the marketing committee).

Your end game is to transition to an assignment that builds your business skills, once your credibility is established. So a marketing exec, needing operational and financial management experience, might volunteer to co-chair an annual appeal. Such assignments tee up result-driven case studies for employees to bring back to their day job, illustrating business skills that prove their qualification for general management.

4. Ensure You’re Still Learning. While sometimes taking a few steps sideways — or even back — can help you move forward, not all lateral moves or career detours will take you in the direction that you ultimately want to go. The trick is knowing which will and which won’t.

It can be detrimental to take a detour if you’re unlikely to learn anything new in the next position. “If you are switching to gain different skills or expand your network in the company, then a sideways turn could be helpful.” “However, if you are switching into a role where you cannot leverage any of your existing skills, then you should hear an internal alarm go off.” To help avoid a dead end, evaluate any lateral move in light of whether it will expand your skill set or neutralize what may be viewed as outdated or “legacy” experience.

Career detours can be beneficial if they round out your overall experience and practical education. “Some detours enhance your understanding of an industry or related industries—for example, industries that are vertically integrated.” “When determining whether a career detour is beneficial, consider how you will use your newly acquired skills for subsequent roles.”

5. Decide for Yourself What ‘Up’ Means. Part of effective career planning is knowing what’s right for you. If you reach a career crossroads where a move feels wrong based on your own goals and vision—whether it’s sideways, up, or down—listen to yourself. Not everyone’s path makes sense as a vertical trajectory. “We often enter the workforce thinking it’s a straight path to the top.” “Usually it’s not.”

A senior leader who knew that the next available step up on his organization’s traditional ladder would force him to spend more time traveling — something he dreaded with a young son at home. But after he spent time redefining what career advancement really meant to him, he discovered that his current post gave him the flexibility and true advancement opportunity that he wanted.

“He chose to stay put, to recognize that growing in his current role would not be a detour, but sacrificing his personal values would be.” “He’s been happily succeeding personally and professionally ever since.”

6. Leverage the Lattice. Whether your lateral move comes about by design or decree, there are ways you can maximize time spent horizontally. One advantage of latticed moves is that they allow you to experience different viewpoints and perspectives.

“Instead of looking down my own ladder, I’m going to look across the lattice of the organization,” said Halley Bock, CEO and president of Fierce, Inc. “Rather than asking for input from people who share my perspective and experience, the question becomes how to embrace and leverage the different vantage points, including those of different generations.”

Offering lateral moves as an alternative to straight-upward movement can be particularly important for the younger workforce, according to Bock. “The opportunity to work among different teams can give variety and depth to employees’ work experience,” said Bock. She added that Millennials bring a strong desire to share their experience and make a difference—so offering multiple avenues to learn and grow can be essential for retaining top young talent.

7. Create Your Own Promotion. With the collapse of mid-management roles in many companies, an employee with 10 to 15 years of experience may suddenly find there’s no next level in sight—their leaders may be in the same age range with no plans to retire or leave any time soon. In cases where you can’t expect a promotion, it may be time to orchestrate your own with a few key strategies:

• Identify the pain in your organization and how you are uniquely suited to help calm that pain from your current position.
• Build a business plan for a new role, department, or service you might lead.
• Communicate with key players in your organization to let your intentions be known.
• Take your efforts as seriously as you would a new job search.

It takes creativity, persistence, and confidence to create your own next step, “but if you’re truly hungry for advancement in a flat world, make it yourself.”

By Robin Madell

As you age, you will want to change the types of jobs you seek, the personal brand you introduce, even the way you present your resume.

Whether you are 22 or 62, a job search may be in your future. But the 20-something’s job search strategy should look very different than the 60-something’s — and so should everyone’s in between.

Especially in this economy, people of all ages are in the market for a new job. Some people are looking to improve their pay or title, some want to change their career paths and some have been involuntarily plunged into a job search due to downsizing. No matter what the catalyst, a job search should be carefully calculated and cultivated, with a great many factors taken into account. One of the most important, but often overlooked, is the impact the job seeker’s age can and should have on the process.

20s: Getting a Foot in the Door

Job seekers in their 20s are long on enthusiasm and education but short on experience. Family and financial responsibilities tend to be limited, so it’s a good time to take chances. It’s also a period during which you can take some time to figure out the ways in which your talents and skills can best be applied.

“Seek out positions where you can learn from others, but be a valuable resource through your fresh perspective, youthful exuberance and the fact you have minimal responsibilities to tie you down.

One of the biggest mistakes 20-somethings make is waiting to start their job search until after they have graduated from college. A job search should start once you have declared your major. This is when you should begin to build a professional network in the way of professional societies, relationships with key professors and with possible employment opportunities through internships.

In the end, there are few things that trump experience, and younger job searchers may have the luxury of being able to gain that experience by working for less or even no pay — at least for a while.

“Having your college degree is great, but experience gets your foot in the door. Do volunteer work within your field. Seek internships, paid or unpaid, if you have to.

30s: Shaping Up

In your 30s, you need to be thinking long-term. At this point, each job is shaping your career.

Think about the next job on your resume. Does it make sense in your career path? If it doesn’t, don’t make that move. Your resume tells a story.

You also may have started a family at this point, so benefits and the demands of the job — not just wages — will be more of a consideration.

Unlike your 20s experience is less important than demonstrating your skills, but there’s still room to take risks.

In your 30s, you’ve built up confidence in your skills and should look for roles that showcase your abilities and allow you to take some professional risks. At the same time, however, you’ll want to scrutinize your work/life balance since you probably have more personal responsibilities in your 30s. You may also want to consider the kind of work you’ll be doing and how your contributions will make a difference with the employer. The benchmark at this stage is to establish respect in your abilities and begin branding yourself as an expert.

40s: What Does Your Career Story Say?

In your 40s, you have laid a firm career foundation. Now is the time to think about your impact and legacy.

A key driver for a voluntary job search in your 40s is often the degree of job satisfaction and personal and professional recognition coming from your current position. For the 40s and beyond, I think you start looking for a job that has impact. By 40, you start defining yourself not just by who you are but also by what you do. This increases as you get older.

At this point in your career, you need to be able to show potential employers that you have effectively managed your career.

Look at the arc of your career over 20 years, and hopefully you see a forward progression of accomplishment and bigger roles. Companies have 20 years of data on you, so they will be looking at this arc, as well. You are getting more expensive; are you worth the cost?

At this point in your career you need to invest more in your job search tools — your resume, personal brand and interviewing skills — to ensure all tell the correct story of your career progression and demonstrate you are worth the price you request.

50s: Find Meaning

As many can attest, looking for a new job in your 50s is not easy.

Job seekers in their 50s may be seen as too expensive. Going for a lower-titled, lower-paying position may be seen as a way to get their foot in the door, but employers often hesitate to hire overqualified candidates for fear that their hearts won’t be in the job or that they will leave the company the minute something better comes along.

Even with these challenges, there are several strategies that can be used to counteract some of the bias against older workers. First and foremost, emphasize accomplishments and experience while de-emphasizing age. Leave the year you graduated from college off your resume and, unless relevant to the job you’re applying for, only show an employment history for the last 15 to 20 years.

For job seekers in their 50s, first-hand experience with age discrimination moves from potential and theoretical to real and immediate. The 50-something job seeker has a professional lifetime of experience to offer a potential employer. And, if circumstances allow, this is the time to be thinking about taking on a position that has real meaning.

Fifty-plus is a time when … what you do has to have meaning — not necessarily a big title but actual ‘meaning. [A new job] should be interesting enough so that you learn something and challenging enough so that it calls on all the skills and experience you’ve acquired. By this time, the rewards are more in the work than in the paycheck.

60s: Be Flexible

Baby boomers who thought they were going to retire at 59½ to 62 are now dealing with the aftermath of the collapse of their job security and the collapse of their retirement funds and are saying, ‘Now I have to work ’til 68 or maybe 70. “But employers aren’t interested in that.”

When it comes to 60-somethings, employers have fears related to potential length of service, technological obsolescence and skyrocketing insurance costs.

At this stage in your career you must use your personal brand to combat those perceptions, but be flexible to different working arrangements like consulting and part-time work. Career experts say job seekers in this age category should be proactive, emphasizing the experience and work ethic that come with age, while demonstrating the flexibility and hunger to succeed that are often attributed more to younger workers.

Speaking of flexibility, experts add that 60-somethings should have it in spades and should demonstrate their willingness to be flexible in their personal brand and resume. Consider consulting, part-time work or freelancing, as opposed to a traditional full-time, benefited position. Pursue consulting work now, and adding those titles and positions to your resume will help.

In your 60s, it’s a whole different ballgame. “This may be about part-time work more than full-time work. You’ve been there and done that.”

Experts added that it’s key for older job seekers to emphasize the experience, wisdom and dependability that (usually) come with age.

Companies value institutional knowledge and deep industry expertise. Do you have this? Use the gray-hair factor as a selling point.

Whether you are 22 or 62, a job search may be in your future. But the 20-something’s job search strategy should look very different than the 60-something’s — and so should everyone’s in between.

Especially in this economy, people of all ages are in the market for a new job. Some people are looking to improve their pay or title, some want to change their career paths and some have been involuntarily plunged into a job search due to downsizing. No matter what the catalyst, a job search should be carefully calculated and cultivated, with a great many factors taken into account. One of the most important, but often overlooked, is the impact the job seeker’s age can and should have on the process.

by- Debra Donston-Miller

Finding a job can be a real beast! If you’re a new grad, recently unemployed, dying to get out of your current position or debating the merits of moving on, how much time should you realistically be spending on the search?

As someone who just went through this process post-grad school, I can confirm what you already know: No matter what situation you’re in, looking for a new job is completely exhausting. From figuring out what types of roles you want to apply for to coming up with a good way to structure your resume to finding postings that look like a good fit and writing tailored cover letters, the process can be intensely challenging.

Personally, I also found the whole thing to be a bit of an emotional roller coaster—in any given day, I’d be stressed as I waited to hear back from a recruiter, then excited if and when I got an interview, and then invariably bummed when an opportunity I’d grown excited about didn’t work out.

Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how many hours per week you should devote to the job search, because your individual circumstances and the urgency of your search are factors. However, in order to help you prepare for what you’re about to embark on, below I outline four common job-searcher scenarios with concrete guidelines for how much time you should expect to block off for each situation.

1. Last Semester Of College: 10 To 20 Hours Per Week

Early on in your last semester is when you need to really start figuring out what you what to do next. You can start by reaching out for informational interviews and exploring various career paths. Then, as graduation approaches and more jobs start popping up you, you should transition your research hours into time spent actually applying for roles. While a small percentage of big companies (e.g., consulting firms, investment banks) sometimes recruit on campus in the fall semester, most openings won’t start popping up until the end of the semester, be that winter or spring.  As you approach crunch time, I’d recommend thinking about your job search as a part-time job, and start setting aside 10 to 20 hours per week whenever possible. Kick-starting the process by meeting with your school’s career office, setting up informational interviews and zeroing in on a list of companies you’re interested in will definitely keep you busy. And once you start getting (and nailing) interviews, things will ramp up further.

2. Recently Unemployed: 30 To 40 Hours Per Week

If you’re recently unemployed and are looking for stable, long-term employment, then your best bet is to treat your career search as though it’s your full-time job, even if you take on a bridge job or side gig to get by. This means budgeting at least 30 hours a week to finding relevant postings, setting up networking meetings, tailoring your cover letter (and resume) and submitting applications. I know the process can sound intimidating, but look on the bright side: It’s amazing that you have large chunks of time to devote to the search.  When I was looking for employment full-time, I found it really helpful to plan out the hours I was going to “work” and the location where I was going to tackle said work. For example, I’d map out a schedule similar to this one: Tomorrow I will go to the library from 10 AM to 1:30 PM, and then I’ll go home for a lunch break. After that, I’ll work from a coffee shop from 2 to 6 PM. Purposeful planning like this helped hold me accountable. It also really decreased my stress level—I knew I was putting in the time needed to land a job, so I didn’t feel guilty hanging out with friends at night or doing something fun on the weekend.

3. Miserable In Your Current Role Or Company: 8 To 10 Hours Per Week

Do you hate your job and wish you could leave ASAP? Although it’s a crummy situation to be in, there is a silver lining: If you’re miserable in your current position, you’ll be pretty motivated to spend time on a job search. It can be hard to explore a better, more suitable opportunity while you’re also working, but if you set clear goals for yourself and carve out specific time to devote to the hunt, you can fit it all in—and not risk losing the job you have before you’re adequately prepared.  If it’s unrealistic for you to accomplish a significant amount of job searching during the week, I recommend setting aside at least five to six hours on a Saturday or Sunday, when you can give the process the attention it needs. I find the flow and focus that results from utilizing a bigger chunk of time is far more beneficial than doing things on-and-off over the course of a couple days. During the work week, plan on devoting 30 minutes here or there to respond to job-search emails, to follow up with recruiters and to grab coffee with a networking contact.

4. Considering A Career Transition: 7 To 8 Hours Per Week Exploring a new career path is exciting and, if you are serious about making a career transition, your job search may look a little different from past searches. Networking will be a very important part of the process, as will learning new skills and determining the necessary qualifications involved in making the switch.  You should be able to get things moving if you devote a few (think seven to eight) hours a week exploring different sectors and positions. Likely, you’ll be spending your time setting up informational coffees, researching what it would look like to work in a different role and educating yourself on a new field. Try to give yourself a set of concrete goals to accomplish each week, such as sending out 10 networking emails or reading six articles about companies that you’re interested in exploring. If you want to build a new skill, such as coding, you can also take a class to really help you focus. This will be a bigger time commitment (likely an additional five to eight hours each week), but it will allow you to build a concrete skill that may really help you make your next transition.  I know it can be completely energy-zapping looking for a new job, no matter what your situation, but hopefully these guidelines will help you get started!  Happy hunting.