Stuck: Finding Change

Welcome to The Shift, a weekly newsletter where I provide thought-provoking ideas to help you think differently about your career and money.

Last Week + This Week = It’s All Connected

Last week I explained what the new term “fractional hiring” meant. Read here if you missed it. This week I explain why believe it is our employers responsibility for career development and where we really should be looking for change.

Remember: I love receiving articles, charts, images, memes, jokes, random thoughts that you think will help inform this newsletter. You are my inspiration! Plus, I’ll give you a shout out.

As always, thank you for reading. ❤️ 

Professionally Trapped

I read a shocking stat the other day.

At first, I couldn’t believe that. Then I got to thinking about the friends, colleagues and family members I know that feel this way.

Here’s the thing, feeling trapped is hard, but it is also often a sign that you desire change but don’t know how to achieve that change.

Or in many cases, you don’t know the change you desire.

That’s usually the point where we start to look to others to show us the way. We start with those in close proximity. Which a lot of times means we look to our employers.  

We expect them to offer the tools, training and a roadmap to our success. At least initially, before moving on to family and friends for guidance.

What we usually find out is that none of these places have the answer we are looking for.

Willing to Quit

Career development is so important to us, that we are willing to quit our jobs over it. See chart.

I mean, if we’ve worked hard and been loyal it only seems fair to lean on our employers for career growth opportunities, right?

Many companies are aware of the mounds of research that support this thinking.

Good leaders will take a genuine interest in their employee’s career development. And many companies offer mentorship, training or reimbursement for training.  

Even then, it is up to us to seek out and take advantage of those benefits.

Change is a funny thing. It is easy to want, but very hard to take the leap. Even when the opportunity is in front of you.

One survey shows that 20% of people face challenges making a change in their careers because they don’t know which path is best for them¹ . So what do we do? We continue to look to others to point us in the direction that is best for us.

Taking The Lead in Your Career

Is it just me or does it sound a little silly to rely on others to choose our career path for us?

Granted, most of the time this is subconscious behavior. What we are really doing is following the career path we landed on.

We live our lives by “accident” as Simon Sinek would say.

When you live life that way, you are:

Capping your success: you are living up to someone else’s definition of success for you. Which usually benefits them more than you.

Accepting the status quo: you are playing by the rules. This can be fine, but if you are unhappy this means the status quo may not align with your authentic self.

Rejecting growth: a career doesn’t have to be a static destination. Embracing your career as an evolving journey, where curiosity becomes your compass, opportunities abound.

Limiting your legacy: you never know who you are inspiring. Your work creates ripples effects, if you aren’t operating at full potential, others are missing out.   

Losing time: we all have a finite time here. The more time we spend feeling trapped at work, the less time we are spending truly living. (My pal, and reader, Todd reminded me of this one.)

Finding the Next Level

As I thought about this week’s topic, I was thinking about how so often the change we want is simply additional responsibility, stretch goals, or a promotion.

In other words, we want to do the work to get a respectable pay raise and title bump. 😉

I put the chart below together for some tips on how to do that. If you want a high res pdf of the image just hit me up and I’ll send it your way.

Not Your Parents’ Career

Look, this isn’t our parent’s career. Nor is it the world they grew up in. The average tenure at a company is 4 years, and change² these days.

If you feel trapped, start looking internally. Others likely won’t have the right answers for you. 

You are in control of your journey.

This is your career after all.

P.S. I’d be forever grateful if you’d share this with 1 other person who might enjoy it. 🙏

Let’s make The Shift!

Lindsey

Sources:

1. Oracle Workplace Intelligence 2021 AI@Work Study, October 2021.

2. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Tenure in 2022, released September 2022.