Tips To Restart Your Career When Experiencing A Stagnant Phase

Since your late teens, you'd have always wanted to earn. To you, having your own money was the only respite from all the scolding your parents gave you. Back then, independence was your dream and kick-starting a career was your only hope of achieving that dream. This is what pushed you to work hard during college, so you get the placement of your choice. Be it an on campus placement in your college days or an off campus drive, you were able to get the job of your dreams.

But now that all that are things from the distant past and it has been years since you started out on your career journey, you may suddenly feel that you have reached a point wherein there is a certain degree of stagnation in your career. You are no longer finding your current job role challenging in itself and the thought of going to work no longer excites you.

The monetary hike and increments may not be to your taste as well. In such a situation, the best thing that you can do is to restart your career. Remember, if you are ready to put in the required efforts, it is never too late to make a fresh start in any domain that we speak of.

• Don't Stop Learning

The first few months of your career marks a significant slope of your learning curve. Once that is done, over the years, the same learning curve often assumes a straight line. In such a situation, the only way out of the stagnation would be to get back to your old self and start learning all over again.

For this, feel free to grab opportunities at your workplace and see if your organisation or firm has any opportunities for giving you higher study options or reimbursing your course fees. Most MNCs have provisions like that.

• Acquire New Skills

Now it may have been such that when you started out you had the required skill set for your current position. But over the years when you were catering to the roles and responsibilities of this position, things took a turn and your field of expertise underwent a paradigm shift. This shift may be in terms of technology or other factors.

With this shift, your skill set has become less relevant as compared to what it was. In such a situation, the only way to come out of this stagnation would by mastering new skills that are relevant to your profession. For anyone who is not well versed with the basics of using a computer, that might be the first step.

• Make A Lateral Move

If you have been in a particular position for long, and you want to advance in your career without taking any major risk, the best way out would be by making a lateral move. Consider applying for posts that are equivalent as that of your own but are in positions where there are better opportunities for career growth. This sort of move will not just provide you with a fresh set of challenges, but it will also put the career on the right track of professional growth and development.

• Volunteer

An active person is someone who never gets stagnant. Hence, make it a point to volunteer and take up responsibilities when the situation so arises. What happens is, during the initial days of our career we are young and ignorant and end up taking risks. As time progresses, we become aware of the consequences of our risks and end up avoiding every opportunity of taking up the risks. This habit on our part is why a hurdle in our path becomes ever-present and we end up becoming stagnant in our careers.

• Ask For Opportunities

No one will walk up to you and give you job opportunities on a silver platter. You will have to ask for them. Hence, while you are doing well in your current role, it is important for you to seek more challenging roles within the company.

Identify your area of interest and then talk to your manager or HR about it. They will be able to guide you to take up more challenging roles in your field of choice. On your part, you can also consider chasing more demanding roles in professional networks like LinkedIn. Doing things like this will put you on the path of career growth.

• Leave At The Correct Time

One of the possible reasons why you are stagnant in your career may be because of the simple fact that your current employer does not value you. In such a situation, the best thing that you can do to yourself would be to quit your current job and start looking for something afresh.

While doing so it is important or you to access the situation and leave your job before they themselves sack you. Leaving your job at the correct time will leave you in a position wherein you can look for a better and more promising job role for yourself.

• Make Periodic Assessments

The trick to identifying the correct time to leave would be by making periodic assessments yourself. If you have been in your current job role for more than two years with absolutely no change in the job responsibilities, then it is probably the best time for you to call it quits. Thus, it is important for you to take time out of your schedule and evaluate your position at work every 6 months to find out if you have made any professional progress in the said period.

If you find the answers to such questions to be negative for two consecutive retrospections, then it is time for you to go ahead and look for some other career options elsewhere.