Trying to figure out what’s next in your career? You might also be interested in: How To Figure Out What To Do In Your Career – 10 Exercises And Prompts To Get Started
How do you overcome that weary feeling of constantly putting in 100% effort and not feeling valued?
What can you do to avoid the mid-career plateau? I feel like I’m starting to get there. My department is really small, and there’s really no room to move up.
When is it OK to voice your opinions…to ask for a raise?
These questions came from a workshop I recently led on the mid-career plateau – i.e., the stage where you feel stuck in your career. While the participants all worked in the same field, the questions were similar to what I have heard in other industries and roles, and my advice would be similar.
Below are 10 ways to get unstuck and break out of the mid-career plateau, but you can also check out my deep dive on careers, why they stall, how to assess where you are, and what you can do.
1 – Clarify what you want next
The sample questions coming from the same workshop all describe the mid-career plateau slightly differently – e.g., feeling undervalued, no room to move up, wanting more voice, wanting more money. It makes sense that what one professional wants for their next step is different from another. How about you? Prioritize among the different decision factors that you will consider in determining your next career move (I posted 40 decision factors to get you started. I also recorded a webinar on how to plan your next move). Before you can truly get unstuck, you need to have a target you’re moving toward.
2 – Identify your gaps
Once you have a clear sense of what you want, do an honest assessment of where you might fall short. You may be overlooked because of something you’re doing wrong or something you’re not doing enough. Hopefully your company offers a performance review process, but if it doesn’t or if your review is months away, here are 10 questions to give yourself a performance review. Executive presence (or lack thereof) may be holding you back from a bigger title or scope of responsibility, so check that you have these 10 factors of executive presence.
3 – Enroll your manager’s support
Your manager can be a powerful resource to help you break out of a mid-career plateau. They know your work product and your strengths and weaknesses. They can assign you projects that will fill skills gaps or give you increased visibility. They can make introductions so people outside your usual area get to know you. They can sponsor you for company management or mentoring programs if they are offered.
Schedule a separate meeting with your manager, outside of talking about immediate work, to discuss your career. Of course, you need to have a supportive manager to get this help – if you don’t have a good relationship with your manager, you may want to skip this step. If you’re not sure whether your manager wants to invest in you, enroll them as an ally by doing exceptional work and being indispensable to the company (here is a 10-question checklist to assess your value). If you suspect that your manager is biased against you specifically, you need a specific plan to address this (here are four next steps if you suspect bias in your performance review).
4 – Get company support
Even if your manager can’t or won’t help, your company may have resources you can tap on your own. Company-wide training may be available without your manager’s sponsorship. Affinity groups or employee resource groups give you the opportunity to meet people across the organization. In this WFH, dispersed environment, these groups may still be meeting virtually, and if they aren’t, find the group heads and offer to organize the first virtual meeting. If you have a mentor outside your immediate manager, this person may have specific ideas for professional development or cross-functional opportunities for you that give you some variety and distance from your unsupportive manager.
5 – Tap your broader network
Your mentors (you shouldn’t only have one) don’t need to be within the company. In fact, it’s helpful to have strong connections outside your company, even industry, to ensure your knowledge, ideas and perspective aren’t too insular. Here’s a list of 10 people you should have in a diversified professional network. A broad base of advisors can give you ideas for turning around your relationship with your manager. Recruiters and senior leaders may have leads on higher-level jobs outside. Cheerleaders can give you encouragement to hang in there.
6 – Go back to school – but not necessarily to study
Your alma mater may also have resources for skills development, learning something new and even job leads. Your alma mater office of career services often extends its resources to alumni, even if you’re decades out of school. Your local college, even if you didn’t graduate from there, may have classes you can audit, one-off classes you can take or short certification programs where you can expand your existing expertise or experiment with a career pivot. If you are considering graduate school as a means of breaking out of a rut, recognize that this is an expensive option so weigh this decision carefully (here are 10 questions to help you decide on returning to school).
7 – Develop your leadership skills
You don’t need formal education to fill in your skills gaps. Your company training may be enough. Your broader network may even give you sufficient advice and coaching, as long as you are self-starting enough to follow through. Reading professional development books, biographies and business news is another way to DIY your leadership development.
Trying to figure out what’s next in your career? You might also be interested in: How To Figure Out What To Do In Your Career – 10 Exercises And Prompts To Get Started
8 – Develop your negotiation skills
While improving yourself is a key ingredient to breaking out of a mid-career plateau, you also need the buy-in of others. People promote people. You need the lead on a project to invite you on. You need the sponsor of a project to assign you as its leader. You need the person who oversees the budget to sign off on your raise. Knowing how to ask for what you want and negotiate if the person initially says No are critical skills. Yes, this means mastering difficult conversations, rather than shying away.
9 — Start a side gig
Don’t be concerned that a side gig will somehow derail, rather than enhance, your advancement prospects. As long as there is no company policy against accepting outside work, starting a side gig is an excellent way to develop new skills, promote your individual brand, expand your network and make additional money. (Here are five skills that a side gig develops that help your promotion prospects.)
10 – Get another job
Leaving your job is disruptive, so should not be a default option. There are several good reasons to stay at a job even if you hate it, one being that, if you don’t work first to improve your current situation, you may just be bringing the same problems you have from your current job to your new job! However, you should always keep in mind that you can leave so your decision to stay empowers you. At the very least, keeping your job buys you time (and cash flow) to find the right job to break out of your mid-career plateau. There are many actions you can take to get another job while still working at your current one.
The mid-career plateau is a stop along the way, not a destination, as long as you keep going
Sure, it would be nice to never feel like you’re in a plateau – to move seamlessly from one great role to the next. But every career has its ups and downs, so this stuck place is a temporary circumstance, not a permanent reflection on you. Get clear on what you want; then try any or all of these steps to get unstuck and moving forward.
Feeling stuck in your career? Check out my deep dive on careers, where I cover why people stall in their career, how to assess where you are in your career, and what you can do to move ahead.
This post originally appeared in my Careers column on Forbes
