by David Hornestay

Created on: August 15, 2011   Last Updated: August 16, 2011

There are two approaches to coping with a conclusion that your career is progressing too slowly: 1) planning steps to renew and accelerate your progress, and 2) recognition that you’ve advanced as far as you are likely to and seeking greater satisfactions in other aspects of your life.  Serious thinking is necessary for effectively coping on either path.

Recharging Your Career

Lifelong education has become a cliché, but many, if not most, careers now require it.  Technology, equipment, customers, missions and challenges change so rapidly that the professional or other worker who doesn’t keep up will not be relied on to play an increasingly important role in the organization.  Are you taking advantage of training opportunities offered in the workplace?  Are you tuned in to professional developments through societies and newsletters?  Is a course offered by a university appropriate for getting ahead?

Doing your job well is still the most proven basis for advancement, but you have to keep demonstrating it.  Are you improving your production and/or quality?  Are you serving on committees or project teams when volunteers are called for?  Are you still so interested in the work of your organization that you can detect ways to do it more efficiently?  Do you make constructive suggestions?  Do you work well with your associates?       

Do the appraisals of your performance accurately reflect your own assessment of how you are doing and do they reflect an individual who is still on the way up?

The answers to these questions will point to steps you can take to get moving again and enable you to judge whether the effort is worth it.

Looking Elsewhere for Greater Satisfaction

An honest self-assessment may lead to the conclusion that you’ve reached a plateau in your career and that you’re not going any further unless you invest time and energy that you would rather put into other aspects of your life.

Your family or other social associations may mean more to you than undertaking additional business travel, relocation, or extended education that would revitalize your career progression.  You may have reached a time in your life when you want to pursue a hobby more seriously.  You may have always wanted to write a book, start an entirely different career, or open a business.

Much thought must be given to finances and the impact of your decisions on others close to you.  But many who have confronted a realization that a career was progressing too slowly have coped magnificently by turning their lives in a new and equally or more rewarding direction.       

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