Do you feel like your career has slowed to a stop? It’s not uncommon for professionals in their mid 30’s to 50’s to feel this way. There are few things more frustrating than failing to make progress—luckily, there’s plenty you can do about it.
Here are five signs that your career has stalled and ways you can pick the momentum back up again.
1. Your skillset is out of date
To remain competitive and grow within your career, it’s important to continue learning. The pace of industry and technology is picking up, which means skill sets are rapidly changing, requiring professionals which are just as adaptable.
You could easily kick-start your career back into action by taking a training course or making an effort to learn something new. By conducting basic research, you can find out which skills are the most in-demand for your industry. It’s also a good idea to meet with your line-manager to identify the skills which will complement the future direction of the company.
Tip: At Robert Half, we offer our candidates free access to e-Learning, our programme of more than 8,000 online training courses to help you stay competitive in today’s career environment.
2. You’ve stopped hitting your career goals
Each new year should begin with a list of career goals which take into account where you’d like to be at the end of the year, and an outline of achievable targets to help you get there.
You may have stopped hitting your goals for any number of reasons, such as a disengagement with your role, overly ambitious targets or a change in your role requirements which have put you off-course. Try requesting a meeting with your manager so you can both reassess your career development plan and get things back on track.
3. You took a career side-step and got stuck
Sometimes it’s necessary to take a ‘stepping-stone’ role to help move your career into a position you might grow from. Although you intended to gain experience, make connections and leave after a year or two, you’ve become stuck in the role and are unable to move forward with your larger career plan.
If this has happened, return to your career plan and decide which is the next logical step for progression. You could also try enlisting the assistance of a recruitment professional—they have the skills needed to help you refine your plan and move you towards your next opportunity.
4. Considerable time has elapsed since your last bonus or pay rise
Has it been a while since you were rewarded with a bonus or pay rise? It could be a sign that you aren’t chasing new career achievements or hitting your targets.
You can start by checking a trusted, industry-wide report, like the Robert Half Salary Guide, to see whether your industry is currently awarding bonuses as standard and what the salary benchmark looks like within your location. From there, you can choose to negotiate a pay rise or to assess new opportunities elsewhere.
5. You’re bored at work
A recent survey by Robert Half showed that the average employee in the UAE spends 5 hours a week bored at work. As you can imagine, this is terrible for engagement and productivity, and certainly won’t help your career develop.
To avoid workplace boredom, you can start requesting to pitch for more projects, ask to hone your training or request to take on new responsibilities which test your skillset.
Keep your career on track by searching new job roles in your location or by getting in touch with the Robert Half team today.
