After college, most people start out with a lot of excitement and expectation. Young and bursting with energy they feel ready to take face the world and stride like giants. Then a couple of years in their job, they come to the realization that they are moving slower than they ever envisaged. The excited they basked in has waned without them eve noticing. 

Then it dawns on them: they are stuck in their career. Why does this happen? 

The following are some of the reason:

Progress is slower than expected:

Most times, people get disappointed in themselves after their lofty dreams are beginning to look like a pipe dream. When they first set out, their expectations were high. At the beginning, they had thought by the end of five years in their profession, they should be senior executives, but after six years, they barely just climbed to mid-level. At this point, frustration kicks in and they begin to feel like a failure. It is worse when they see others with whom they started out, now ahead of them. This brings about self- doubt; they begin to second guess themselves, asking if they chose the right career after all.

When this happens, it may be that you have not been doing a proper review of your job. If you do, you may discover that you have not been putting in your best, and those you see being elevated are the ones who go beyond and show promise at work, and therefore command the attention and recognition of the management. It may also be that though you are putting in the work, the organization you work in offers little or no prospect for growth.  It could also be that you never really had a goal, you had unrealistic goals or you have not been practically pursuing goals. If any of these is the case, then it is time to start setting new goals, and back it up with practical action plan which you must faithfully follow. 

No challenges:

New challenges present opportunities to test your competence at what you. For every professional challenge overcome in your assignment, your confidence e level increases. You are building a track record of success and you may decide to change jobs or ask for a raise or promotion, knowing well that you can justify it. But then, all of this is not happening and you feel like you are at the mercy of your job. This is because the only thing you are getting from it is your salary.  

A proper reflection will reveal to you what has gone wrong. The problem may be with the structure of your place of work. The office itself may be a jack of all trade, doing different unrelated jobs as they come. For example, an advertising company whose glory days are over and all they do now is merchandise. You being a strategist, you are now assuming the role of contracting printing jobs for vendors. At first you thought it was a phase, until two years pass and you were not even counting. Now you realize the industry has left you behind. Even worse, you are afraid to apply for new jobs because you can’t keep up with new industry trends anymore.

In this situation, what you can do is go out more, to seminars and other gatherings where you can network with people in your industry. This way, you can back in the groove and be able to contribute to professional conversations. And ultimately, you can get aware of growth opportunities in terms of new job openings.  

Your skills are outdated:

It is impossible to advance today using yesterday’s skill. Your employability depends mainly on the skill set you are bringing to the table. Sometimes, your current job can’t offer these skills. Seek to know new about the latest tools and methods of getting job done in your industry so you can measure up to the standard expected in your profession or industry. 

No fulfillment:

Sometimes you need to tell yourself the bigger truth. You may have taken that career simply because you fancy it, not because you have genuine passion for it. There are other areas of passion for you and you know deep inside. If this is your case, you know what to do: change your career as quickly as possible. 

I hope you find the three points useful. Whatever your professional calling is, please do all you can to remain relevant and not get stuck.