Three Reasons Your Career Has Hit a Brick Wall
Perhaps you can remember, quite vividly, the palpable excitement with which you started your current job. This was going to be it! This was going to be the job that launched your career into the stratosphere. It had the perfect balance of familiarity and challenge. The people seemed so talented, so supportive and so ready to guide you to the next stage in your career. Every day looked brimming with opportunity and promise.
Then fast-forward a year or two and you find yourself off that high. Perhaps you notice yourself complaining about things a lot more lately. Maybe the complaints even sound similar to those you made at your last job.
So what happened?
In the majority of cases, inertia is what happened. We become competent at what we do, then we become exceptional, and then… we plateau.
And if an employer doesn’t have the ability to recognize this pattern and roll out an infrastructure to support and nurture their employees TIMELY, well eventually, they will run out of steam.
Or, perhaps the people who seemed like such promising leaders or coworkers when you first started at the company, leave.
Or, maybe others are even getting promoted above you. And then, the work you used to find so rewarding begins to turn into a grueling chore. The momentum that propelled you through your career grinds to a stop.
As a recruiter, I’ve seen this pattern and had these chats with employees over and over again.
But it doesn’t all come down to your employer. Rather, it’s important for you to recognize patterns and have an open and honest conversation with yourself and your manager in real-time, not when it’s too late.
Some things to watch out for…..
You’re coasting at work
Be honest with yourself, have you started coasting through your days? Have you stopped giving 110% at work? When tasks no longer feel challenging to us, we stop applying ourselves to them with the same level of passion and vigor we once had. And if your current manager wasn’t around to see the almighty and powerful you when you first started, they’re likely not going to associate you as that now. That situation happens a lot, I know. And I’m sorry. But again, important to recognize and tackle these things real-time versus in hindsight.
So if you’re wondering why you keep getting passed up for promotions, lateral progressions and other opportunities, it may be because you are perceived to be coasting instead of stepping up to the plate to take on more work. But I’m here to help you with that. Go check out the blog post I wrote, Internal Job Promotions: Why Some People Get Them and Others Don’t.
Maybe you’ve lost your passion for what you do
Your passion is what gives you the X factor. It’s what makes you, YOU. It’s that indefinable quality that adds something extra-special to everything you do. Employers, clients and customers alike can perceive its value. And when it’s lost, it can be extremely difficult to get back.
If you feel like you’ve lost your passion for the work you do (I know, I’ve been there), perhaps now’s the time to look into making a living doing what you love on your own terms. You may assume that our current circumstances with the pandemic are a barrier to entrepreneurship. But in reality, the current climate brings with it a wealth of opportunities for enterprising individuals who want to engage their clientele directly as they navigate this “new normal”.
At the very least, you owe it to yourself to try and reignite your professional passion. Even if it means taking your skills elsewhere. I’m happy to talk more about this anytime as I made a massive pivot this year in how I decided to allocate my skills.
Speaking of looking elsewhere, be careful not to look for opportunities in the wrong places
Here’s one thing I’ve seen over and over again as a recruiter. An employee at one company starts looking for jobs at other companies to do the exact same thing they’ve been doing, at the exact same seniority level, for x,y,z reason, and then expects to find happiness. Now, there could be a very legit reason why this could make sense, but it’s limited to either you had to relocate or you are 100% not on board with the business your last company was operating.
More often though, it’s because people get bored, frustrated, or start to feel resentment without doing a serious inventory of themselves as to why. Is it the content of the work, the process, the manager, the customers, the company’s principles and what they stand for, the industry, the lack of new opportunities or challenges? The list goes on and on. But you need to seriously inventory this about yourself and your internal frustrations and desires because this will help you better focus your attention on an actual sustainable solution. Because just changing companies hoping for greener grass very often times does not work. Do not be a job hopper. I promise you it will hurt you in the long-run. You need to know why you feel the way you feel, so you make sure the next direction you take makes sense for you.
At the end of the day, if changing companies is what makes sense for you, then the world is at your fingertips these days with everyone being forced to figure out how to work digitally. And I’m not just talking about the obvious sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster and Indeed. Recall that massive jobs hit we took earlier this year with COVID? States have really stepped up with their job posting capabilities and companies are taking advantage of it. For example, if you live in Arizona you can navigate to this website to check out a whole slew of professional level jobs. Same for other states and also professional organizations as well.
In Summary…
I think it’s oh so important that you inventory yourself constantly. I’m talking about your feelings, emotions, skillsets, performance, maybe even how others may be responding to you lately. This will tell you a lot about yourself and help you see the right direction for how to move forward. Again, don’t do this in hindsight, do this in real-time regularly, before you hit the brick wall.
Much love to you guys!
-Kristin