Jeremy Kaplan
Identifying a bad job is simple enough, but trying to determine whether or not you’re losing momentum in your career path is much more difficult. You can liken this to the difference between a tire suddenly blowing out, and a smaller, less obvious issue that damages a car over time. If you know you’re in the right field, but you’re not sure if you need a career change or not, here are a few tell-tale signs that you’ve hit a wall in your career…
You’re Not Getting Any Better
Think about your current output at work, and compare it to the way you were performing six months to a year ago. Is your code noticeably cleaner? Is your writing style more fluent and fitting for the niche? Are you closing more sales? If there hasn’t been any noticeable improvement in your work over a long enough period of time, you need to take a step back and ask yourself why this is. If you’re not getting all the resources you need to improve your work, or you’re having to deal with a company culture that makes it hard for you to push yourself, it may be high time you look for a career change.
There Isn’t Much Room for Growth
If you’ve worked for several companies over the past few years, and you had the same job title for each one, this could be a clear sign that your career is beginning to stall and stagnate. If you keep reaching for the next stage in your career, but you keep getting shot down for unclear reasons, it’s a good idea to take a long, hard look at your skill set. If your resume isn’t nearly competitive enough for the job you’re shooting for, it may be a good idea to save up and go back to school, or look into part-time online programs like Find Your Context. In a lot of cases, competent professionals will find themselves stuck on one rung of their career simply because they’re not presenting themselves to hiring managers as well as they could. Still, sometimes there simply aren’t enough higher positions going at the company you work for, and you’ll need to jump ship to find a business that allows for more growth.
You Don’t Know Where You’re Heading
If your boss asks you where you’d like to be a few years from now, and you struggle to come up with an answer, then your career might have come to a dead end. What’s even more worrying is when your managers don’t even bother to ask you where you want your career to take you in the first place. Not every job will get you closer to an executive office, and you may not even want one. However, there should always be some kind of clear path forward; a next step that involves taking on new responsibilities, setting and then overcoming new challenges, enhancing your skills, and so on. If there’s nothing on the horizon, start looking for a new job!
