Has your career stagnated?

When you stop and look around you, are you where you expected to be right now, career wise? If you have a career that challenges, inspires, and motivates you (most days) you are well on your way to having a career to enjoy. However, if you feel like you are in Groundhog Day, you may be settling for a career to enjoy. Has your career stagnated?

If you are wondering what career stagnation feels like, let’s see if you can say YES to any of these:

• You may have regular thoughts of quitting.
• You haven’t seen much salary progression.
• You feel like you are on a hamster wheel.
• There is no clear direction on where you are going next.
• You haven’t learned anything new in a long time!

 

Like many things in your career, this feeling of standing still, not growing or developing, can creep up on you. As I’ve written about before, the sense of growth and opportunity doesn’t always need to come from your career; there are times that your career is the steady place that allows you to grow and develop in other ways. But, if you find that the challenge has gone in your workplace and your personal life, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, this bothers you, you may need to take action to get things moving again.

Firstly, I want you to consider your expectations for your career. Do you consider your career as a sprint? To progress quickly, making an impact and a steep career trajectory? Or, more of a marathon, making steady growth over time? The expectations we put on ourselves can often make us feel like our career is stagnating, as the timelines and deadlines we put on ourselves aren’t matching what is happening in our professional life.

So, before you go any further, take some time to consider what type of career you want? Maybe you aren’t stagnating, you are just running at a different pace than you expect or want. One way to consider this is to draw yourself a timeline, from when you started your career and where you are right now. Add along this timeline all the important events in your career and your life, the job shifts and organizational changes, qualifications you have achieved, training you have attended, and important projects or events you have taken part in. You may find, by taking the emotional and pressure away for a moment you are able to see that your career HAS been moving in a way that works for you.

We have all heard of the stories of people that have reached a socially declared success at a later age, you could say they are the marathon runners of their sector!

Did you know that:

• Designer Vera Wang entered the fashion world at 40.
• Stan Lee created his first successful comic just before he was 39.
• Samuel L Jackson landed his first award-winning role aged 43.
• Harland Sanders (aka Colonel Sanders) franchised KFC when he was 62.
• Arianna Huffington founded The Huffington Post aged 55.

 

Some of these people switched careers, and others evolved, but all had built a reputation, connections, skills, and experience to get here. It’s easy to look at some of these famous names and not feel a connection; but when your career feels like it’s stagnating, seeing that you can develop as you get older can be inspiring!

The next consideration is what you want going forward? Have you set career goals recently? One issue with career stagnation is lack of change; sometimes that is easy to see through job promotions or changes in duties. At other times, it’s more internal. If you aren’t working in an environment that creates these opportunities for you, then the first step to create some of your own.

Many clients that I work with find that they can create a sense of movement and direction in their careers by injecting a sense of novelty.  This may be learning something new, volunteering for project groups or working towards a new career path. There may be times that the novelty you need isn’t actually within work; maybe invest some time and attention in something new outside of work.  Pay attention to what you pay attention to; the books you read, the films you watch, the news that turns your head. For some people this can lead to a whole new career path (from a “side hustle” to a new career path) For others this can help you rebuild your confidence, develop your self-esteem, and help you see the progress you are making.

Part of the issue may be, if I am blunt, that your career IS stagnating.  It is OK to review what is going around you and to consider if it’s time to move to a new place. Maybe you HAVE reached your maximum within the organization you are working in, so a change of scenery or new perspective can be the catalyst for you to find your career mojo again.  The timeline that you will have worked on earlier will be a great way of plotting your future. You can see clearly what matters to you, how you have developed up until now and start the reflection on how you can stake the next step. From a recruitment perspective, especially if you have been within an organization for a while, you are justified to move on if you feel it’s not offering you what you need. You want a place that can support your ambition and desire to learn. As we have seen earlier there is no age cap on being able to launch a new career or take a step of faith and bet on yourself.

Before you decide that YOU are the issue, consider that the best way to stop stagnation is to move and change, so if you feel like your career has halted to a stand-still, get things moving by shaking it up!

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