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Dear Liz,
Over the past six months I’ve come to the realization that my job is not a good fit for me anymore. I can do the job in my sleep and my manager doesn’t want me to take on any more responsibility. I’m bored, I don’t get paid enough and I’m undervalued at work.
Everyone in our department has the same problem. I have what some people call a “job job.” It’s not a career path. It’s just a job to pay the bills, and I shouldn’t have stayed here as long as I have.
I tried for two and a half years to make this job a bigger and more challenging job than it was, but it didn’t work. I am tired of trying. Every good idea I suggest gets shot down. My manager doesn’t want to hear new ideas. She doesn’t want to think that hard. She just wants me to do my work and keep quiet.
I’m going to launch a stealth job search but I worry that my current job is so menial it won’t help me get a better job. What should I do? How did I get stuck in a dumb job that I could have performed ten years ago?
Thanks,
Rachael
Dear Rachael,
Almost everybody has been in your spot. When we have a less-than-sensational job, we try to make the best of a bad situation.
Sometimes it takes a while for the message to get through: “This job is not going to get any better than it is right now!”
Don’t feel bad about it. Thank your lucky stars that you got the message at last. It wasn’t the right time before — now the timing is perfect. Now you can make plans.
Smart people get stuck in dumb jobs all the time. Here are 10 ways it can happen:
1. You take a job because you need a job fast, and the job is more interesting and more rewarding than you expected it to be. That’s a good thing. It can take a long time to realize that even though your job isn’t horrible, it’s still not a job that deserves your talents — or most likely ever will.
2. Sometimes the job you accepted morphs into an unrecognizable version of itself over time. This happened to Samantha. “I was hired to run two kids’ athletic programs,” said Samantha. “That was a great assignment. Then a year later they switched me to a new job, working with the vendors who run kids’ programs for our community center. I didn’t like that as well, because I wasn’t working with kids or designing programs. Finally I was moved into a strictly administrative role that I hated. That’s when I knew I had to quit.”
3. Sometimes you want an easy job that won’t tax you too much, even if it means your career progress gets put on hold. One day, you realize that you need more. Your dumb job isn’t carrying its own weight. You need more than a paycheck now. You were asleep on your career — or at least dozing — but now you are awake!
4. When your mojo fuel tank is depleted, you’re not likely to shoot for the most challenging positions you are qualified to hold. You’re likely to be more conservative and to shoot lower. As your mojo returns, you realize that you’re not doing your career justice. You are perfectly qualified for more complex and responsible roles — so why not go after them?
5. Smart people get stuck in stupid jobs when they start to believe that the only jobs they are qualified for are jobs in their traditional field, or in the discipline they studied in college. That’s not true — it hasn’t been true for years. We can bend and flex and move all over the talent market these days. Your college major doesn’t limit your career progress unless you believe it does. We are all career-changers now!
6. You can get stuck in a job that’s far beneath your capability because you like the people you work with. It is a wonderful thing to work with great people, but when your body tells you “You are ready for something bigger!” it’s important to listen. True friends you meet at work will still be your friends when you move to a job that can grow your flame. You won’t learn anything by standing still!
7. Smart people get stuck in stupid jobs when they try to please their managers instead of pleasing themselves. Way too many brilliant and capable people are working below their level of competence because somebody above them on the organizational chart told them “Help out the team and take this boring job for a few years — we won’t forget that you helped out the company!” Unless you’ve got an ironclad, written agreement and the reward for taking on the unexciting job is a big one, this is a bad deal for you!
8. You can get trapped in a lousy job when you’re moving from one location to another. As a newcomer to the area, you don’t have a network established and you may feel that you have to take whatever job you can get. That’s fine for a while, but eventually you are going to want to expand your horizons.
9. People get trapped in artificially low-level jobs when they are between career paths. When you’ve left one career path — either because an industry or function is disappearing or because you know you can’t continue doing the same kind of work — and you haven’t stepped into a new one yet, that’s when you’re likely to take a low-level job just to keep working. As you learn more about yourself and the world, your vision for your next career step will begin to take shape. There’s no need to stick around in an unsatisfying job once you’re clear on your new direction.
10. Finally, you can get stuck in a dumb job by taking a passive approach to your career. If you’ve been drifting through your career instead of driving it where you want it to go, you’re likely to wake up one day and realize that you’ve reached a dead end.
Driving your career doesn’t mean that everything will work out the way you want it to — it just means that wherever your path takes you, you’ll be in control. You’ll be making all the decisions. Your employer is not in charge of your career — you are!
You get to decide what to do professionally, and you also have to decide. When it’s time to leave a job because it isn’t a good fit for you anymore, you’ll do it. You won’t stick around for a few more years just because changing jobs is inconvenient. You’ll run your career the way every CEO runs their business. You have to run your career that way, because no one else will!
Now that you’re starting a stealth job search, what will you tell prospective employers about the unexciting job you’re in now? Your job bores you to tears, but when you understand the power in your learning over these past two and a half years, you’ll see that you lots of good stories and good learning to share.
When you can answer these five questions about your job, the story of You on The Job will come to life!
1. What is the principal reason your job exists? What bad things would happen for the organization if no one were doing your job — or if a less capable person than you were doing the job?
2. What is the biggest triumph you’ve had in your job? Tell the story of that triumph – anyone would want to hear it!
3. What have you learned on the job? It doesn’t matter whether your learning was built into the job description or whether you learned everything you learned just by watching and listening. Either way, it’s powerful learning!
4. Who are your internal and external customers, and how do you help them succeed by doing your job well?
5. What positive impact did you leave on your current employer? What is in your wake as you think about leaving your job for a new one?
You are more qualified than you think. In this job and every job you’ve held, you’ve left a bigger footprint than you know. You’ve influenced people, encouraged people, taught people how to do things and solved more problems than you could count.
Think about what you’ve made happen, launched, fixed and upgraded in your current position. When you capture those stories, they won’t be boring. They’ll be affirming for you and inspiring for other people, I guarantee it!
All the best,
Liz
Liz Ryan is the CEO and founder of Human Workplace. Follow her on Twitter and read the rest of her Forbes.com columns here.
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