- When you feel trapped and unable to progress in your job, it’s known as a professional plateau. Symptoms include feeling stuck in a job or position, constantly bored, and looking for fulfillment. Lastly, it’s the feeling that you have no opportunity to grow in your current role.
What Time Is Most Likely to See a Career Plateau?
When someone learns new talents and feels they have outgrown their existing role, that is one internal cause of career stagnation. One external factor contributing to career stagnation is when a person feels “stuck” and unable to progress within the company.
Strategies for escaping a career rut:
The following techniques can assist an employee in breaking away from a career plateau:
One of the best strategies for breaking up boring work and switching to a more engaging and pertinent line of work, either inside or outside the company, is to upskill or reskill. Working in the same or a different job function while learning about new disciplines and market trends can help you reskill and eventually land better positions.
Job Enlargement: In order to not only assist but also to learn and develop inside the company, an employee may discuss their issues with their manager and HR and offer to take on additional duties.
The individual’s growth and readiness for future responsibilities will greatly benefit from this. The knowledge and expertise acquired will be more role-specific and industry-specific.
Job Rotation: Changing departments may provide new opportunities and assist an individual in breaking free from a routine. Similar outcomes could result from shifting roles or locations within the same organization.
Job Switch: An individual may be able to move to another company that offers a better job and structure than the current one if vertical growth and better work are not possible in the current one.
An illustration of a career plateau
For fourteen years, John Smith has been employed in the sales division of a large engineering company. He worked brilliantly for the first eight or nine years after arrival and was promoted successfully. For the past five years, John has been unable to progress in his profession and is still employed in the same position with the same responsibilities and KPIs. John’s career has stagnated as a result. John has reportedly achieved what is known as a career plateau in his professional life.
John started marketing training and upgraded his skills with industry-recognized marketing and heavy engineering certifications in order to address this. He began taking on additional work from the marketing team and eventually advanced into a larger role in the marketing department due to his 14 years of experience and suitable skill set.
Thus, the Career Plateau’s definition and synopsis are finished.
