In a rut? Find out how to “unstick” your career

We’ve all been dealing with a lot – rising inflation, a potential recession, political uncertainty and post-pandemic fatigue.

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While some took advantage of “The Great Resignation” and hot labour market to bag lucrative new roles, others turned their attention elsewhere and unintentionally ended up in a career rut.

Is it too late to make a change? Absolutely not. If you’re worried about your skills or concerned your opportunities for growth have suffered, rest assured you’re not alone. In fact, a recent survey by Prudential found 75% of workers in the same position are worried about their skill set, while 80% are concerned they’ve missed an opportunity for progression.

What can you do? With new hires continuing to benefit from higher salary increases than loyal workers, you have two options. Conduct a career audit, bust out of that rut and go get a new role. Or, following that career audit, you can find your market worth, and using renewed confidence you can negotiate a hefty raise in your current job.

Here are six tactics to try.

1.  Find the time

There is a lot going on. For everybody. So before you address a career rut, make sure you have the time to see it through. Focusing on your career and moving it forward is time consuming and will take up a lot of your focus. Do you have that to spare right now? The “we can have it all” mentality has been damaging to everyone.

Yes, you can have it all, but not at the same time. If you have personal or family commitments to consider then ask yourself, is now the right time to focus on this? If the answer is no, keep performing at work and wait until the time is right.

For jobs across all sectors and at both mid and senior levels, the Fintech Futures Job Board is your best step forward.

2.  Find your passion

Do you love your job? Do you love your profession, or did you ever? If you’re working in an industry you love but are perhaps no longer fired up by your current role, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board and rediscover what it was about the industry that first stoked your passion.

Maybe your current role has taken you away from doing the aspect of the job you love, or you may be caught up in the grind and have lost sight of what you love doing. Whether it’s the job or your attitude, you need to separate the wheat from the chaff and rediscover a way to love what you do. It may be through delegating the aspects of the role you dislike, or it might be pivoting entirely into a different role that lets you do more of what you love.

3.  Find inspiration

Whose life do you wish you had – professionally speaking? Look around your professional networks and identify people both at your level and above whose career and day-to-day interest you. What do they do and what skills or attributes do they have that you’re lacking? Can you see a path between where you are and where you’d like to be? Just be clear with yourself on the reasons you find this person inspiring. Stay strictly professional and don’t let personal aspects creep in.

4.  Find the skills

Do you have the right skills and you’re not utilising them? Or can you identify a skills gap you need to fill? If it’s the former, volunteer for extra projects or suggest new programmes that let you highlight the abilities you want to showcase.

If it’s the latter, then find resources that will help you upskill. Search online for relevant courses and webinars, or if you want to progress within your organisation, ask your manager to work with you on developing a training and development programme.

5.  Find your worth

Do you know your market value? If you applied for a role now, right now, with your current experience and skills, what could you expect to earn? Think about upskilling and securing more wins for your current employer to positively impact on your value. Understanding the market, and your place in it, helps you identify your next steps.

6.  Find your motivation

You know what you want and you know what you have to do to get it. Now you just need to find the motivation to actually… go get it. The Harvard Business Review suggests that changing your habits is the best way to kick-start your motivation. Similarly, Einstein hit the nail on the head when he said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

If your current working habits led you to this rut, then change them. Amending one habit will impact the other, and even small changes such as switching the time you work out, talking to new people in the canteen or listening to a different podcast on your commute can help you to switch up your working day.

Exposing yourself to new ways of thinking will spark your imagination – which will spark your motivation. Just try it.

Now that you know what you want to achieve and are motivated to go and get it, check out the many available job opportunities on the Fintech Futures Job Board.