“Hope you don’t have to hold your bladder ’cause it’s time for the Career LadderIt is jingle may be unknown to many, but frequent users of TikTok or reels on Instagram, especially younger people, will have read this phrase in the tone of the song. It’s the introduction to “The Career Ladder,” Max Klymenko’s segment of videos that have gone viral across all platforms over the past year.
The concept is simple: Klymenko invites someone to climb a ladder and, using clues given by the person in front, tries to guess what their profession is, from the simplest to the rarest. With the success of the videos, and although the objective is to speak to anonymous people, it has already welcomed several important figures onto the ladder, such as the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, the former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal or the singer PinkPantheress, among other well-known internet figures.
The author — originally from Ukraine and residing in the United Kingdom for several years — already had a presence on social media and several million subscribers, but explains, in an interview with Expresso, that the success of this digital ‘program’ emerged suddenly in recent months. He now has 8.5 million followers on TikTok3.7 million in YouTube and 1.5 million in Instagram.
The comments on the Expresso video on social media prove the phenomenon: