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A considerable amount of research has been published on career plateau since its first appearance in the careers literature in the 1970s. There is therefore a need to summarise what is known about the field in its entirety and what remains unanswered. This paper presents a review of career plateau research published between 1977 and 2017 and includes 72 empirical sources. Focusing on hierarchical and job content plateau, the review adopts a social exchange perspective in explaining why the two types of plateau are linked with various unfavourable work outcomes, what the mechanisms and moderators of these relationships may be, and the possible antecedents of career plateau. The 72 sources included in the review revealed that career plateaued individuals generally report unfavourable affective outcomes (e.g., poorer satisfaction and well-being) as well as other undesirable work outcomes (e.g., poorer …