Map possible career paths.
Mapping a path from a current level to a target one makes the timeline explicit rather than aspirational. Each promotion carries a typical tenure requirement, and deliberate lateral moves — taken to acquire breadth that the next vertical step demands — add roughly eighteen months each without advancing the level. Reporting average months per move is the reality check: paths implying a move every year rarely survive contact with actual promotion cycles.
Path duration with lateral moves
Levels = target - current; years = levels x years per level + lateral moves x 1.5; months per move = years x 12 / total moves
Often yes at mid-level, where the next step requires breadth you cannot get by going deeper. They are hard to justify late in a path, where the same eighteen months would deliver a promotion instead.
Two to three years at early and mid levels, stretching to four or more at senior levels where positions are fewer. Fast-growing organisations compress this; stable ones lengthen it considerably.
Frequently, yes — external moves often deliver a level jump that internal promotion would take longer to grant. The trade-off is losing accumulated internal credibility, which matters most at senior levels.