7 Signs Your Career Is Stalling and How to Turn Them Around

Most professionals in the job market seek constant improvement, right? Always learning more, evolving, developing and reaching new milestones in your career is the expected journey. However, this path is not always linear, and you may find yourself stagnating at times. That’s why it’s essential to know the signs that your career is at a standstill.

This way, you will be able to identify problems and act quickly to reverse each one of them. After all, remaining stagnant for too long is dangerous and can jeopardize your entire career, disrupting your plans and diminishing your past achievements more and more.

Therefore, see below 7 warnings that your professional life may be at a standstill and change this scenario right now.

7 Signs Your Career Is Stalled

1 – You don’t feel challenged at work

Have you stopped feeling that adrenaline rush of taking on new professional challenges at work? Has your manager stopped giving you new demands and responsibilities? Do you feel like you do your job well, but never do anything different? These are big warning signs that you may be stagnating.

To change this situation, it is worth being more proactive and present in your day-to-day work. Show interest, participate more in meetings, ask to follow different projects and take responsibility for yourself. After all, if we just wait for challenges to arrive, they may never find us.

2 – Your days are quite boring at your job

Likewise, feeling bored is a classic. Doing the same things every day, without any new things or updates, can leave this feeling of boredom in the air.

Therefore, you need to seek out the enchantment you once had for your profession. Keeping up to date, following the tips from the previous item, reading more about your field, participating in events, courses and conferences are great ways to do this. As an added bonus, you can also network to get out of stagnation once and for all.

3 – You haven’t received a raise or promotion in a long time

Maybe you are doing well at your job, without any major emotions, but happy with your day-to-day life. However, how long has it been since you received a promotion, raise, bonus or recognition?

These indicators are crucial in knowing that you are exceling and progressing. So, when you find yourself in the same spot all the time, it’s a big red flag that it’s time to move on. Dust off your career plan, sit down with your manager or mentor, and talk about what the company is expecting and how you can help develop yourself.

4 – Stress and mental exhaustion are part of your daily life

You already know that comfort and boredom are not always the only symptoms of a stagnated career. Stress, mental exhaustion, and anxiety are among other appearances. Be it an accumulation of tasks and responsibilities that prevents you from thinking about your growth, or a suffocating situation where you haven’t moved out of the same place.

Irrespective of the cause, you must evaluate what is making you feel this way and change it. You must communicate your suggestions to your manager and take actions that make it happen. You should be proactive, learn how to delegate, and add developmental activities to your daily routine.

5 – You can’t keep up with new technologies

Don’t know what generative artificial intelligence is? Never heard of augmented virtual reality? Is this the first time you’ve read the expression “internet of things”? Then you know that something is not going well in your career.

Whatever be the domain, it is necessary to be updated with the latest technology; otherwise, it reflects that you are behind the curve of the world’s developments, which will certainly impact your work. Therefore, do keep yourself updated day by day and continue to seek new learnings so that you become familiar with the technologies as well as master them.

6 – Your professional future is not mapped out

If the last time you opened your career plan was three years ago, in a mentoring meeting with a manager who is no longer at the same company as you, we have a big problem.

This situation clearly demonstrates why your career has come to a standstill. To move forward, you must have an idea of where you are headed and what you have to do to get there. And all this can only be possible if there is proper career planning with mapped steps for short, medium, and long-term goals as well as strategies that will be used in between.

7 – Graduation was the last time you studied and updated yourself

Finally, if you never studied again after submitting your Final Course Project for your undergraduate degree, know that you may soon be replaced in the job market.

Companies need professionals who are up-to-date. They need professionals who are aware of the latest developments and trends in the field, who are always learning new concepts, understanding what is obsolete and needs new solutions, and who seek specialization. Without this, you won’t have much to offer the job market.

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