9 Signs Your Career May Be Stagnating and Tips to Overcome Downturns

1. Boredom at Work

If your current job does not challenge you and does not require most of the skills you possess, then it is time to consider a change. The only benefit that your current job can offer you then, is a stable pay which is also questionable if there occurred a layoff or if your organization preferred fresh talents who can work better and more, and also replace your role at a lesser cost to the company.

These are scenarios that you can expect. The tip would be to keep yourself constantly updated with the changes in the job market and the kind of skill sets that recruiters are looking for. A talented professional is always in demand!

2. No Scope for Learning

For any kind of progress at work, learning and implementing new skills is a mandate. If your current job does not give you the scope to learn and grow, then you are going to be outdated and you are no more a resource for the organization nor a favorable choice for recruiters.

What employers seek are highly-driven employees who can learn and grow with the organization. The demand is so much so that, skilled professionals who can validate their resourcefulness through constant self-learning and by being certified with professional courses, can have their scales high up in their careers.

3. No Rise in Salary

After all the hard work and the time at work, if your efforts aren’t receiving the right credits, then it is a sign of having stayed at the same job for too long. Having the same role and doing the same job with little to no increase in pay, reduces your selling value while you are on your next job hunt.

Research and find out the benchmark salaries for professionals in similar roles. And if you could also rise in the ladder, with the acquired work experience, why wait to jump ship to a new job?

4. No Scope for Skills Implementation 

Often times, when the skills of employees are not being utilized to the utmost, it reduces the drive, resulting in frustration at work. Learning supplemented with scope for implementing what is newly learned are essential factors to check in a job role.

Scope for implementing newly acquired skills at a job role comes at a later stage. But if you’ve been in your current job for a while, waited for enough and see no scope nor change in your job role, be assured, there is always an organization that demands skill-sets that you might already possess, regardless of the changing scenes in the job market.

5. Overloaded with Work 

Are you a very capable and skillful employee who is only overloaded and unnoticed at work? Needless to say, you are at the wrong place, and at a wrong role. Reliable employees are assets to organizations, and organizations value them.

However, in circumstances like this, it is time to venture out for more career opportunities. If you find a better-suited opportunity but wish to stay in the organization, you could still negotiate with the offer at hand, or, take the offer elsewhere and return to the current organization in the future. After all, the perspectives of viewing a former employee as a ‘traitor’, upon leaving the organization, is no longer true, as skill and talent are always sought after.

6. In Frictional Terms with Your Boss

If you begin to feel, that you are being undervalued and your ideas are not respected, it is eventually going to result in unhappiness at work. Rather than letting all the pent-up frustration reflect in your relationship with your boss, or your performance at work, move on to favorable career prospects, and save yourself from any bitter relationships with your bosses and colleagues.

7. Organization Going Downhill

If your current organization has recently suffered some losses and is going downhill, it is good to stay alert on new career prospects and save yourself from the effects of a possible recession.  In such a case, it would be wiser to make the move and find opportunities elsewhere, than waiting to be pushed to make the move.

8. No Great Opportunities for Growth 

If the current organization does not give you enough opportunities to grow but your talent gets noticed and you are contacted by recruiters with better opportunities, then, why wait to pick the opportunity. When you are being contacted without an application, it suggests, you are in a favorable position and are viewed as a prospective candidate to fill in a position.

In such a case, it is also suggestive that you are in a likely position to be successful at the interview and also negotiate to more-suited pay and benefits. So, rise with the tide and pick opportunities as they come, and progress faster on your career graph.

9. Lacking Skills

Let’s get honest. Sometimes, there comes a point when you realize upon self-analysis that you could perform better by acquiring additional skills and that the cause for career stagnation is not always external. If you can make the time required to do professional certification courses and if it suits your budget, then it would be a wiser decision to invest on your growth.

While your interest at self-improvement gets noticed, organizations also respond positively to such efforts and respond with suitable upgradation in the role and pay.

In Conclusion

A recent study conducted by MRINetwork (Recruitment Sentiment Study, 1st Half of 2015), states that recruiters believed that the power dynamic in the current labor market, was greatly candidate driven than being employer driven. If this study is to be believed, then the job market is now favorable for employers than ever before, to jump on bandwagon and grow in their careers, with a viable plan in place.