When career progression hits a brick wall – what next?

A difficult boss, a personality clash with HR, or simply a lack of appreciation for what you do – hitting the proverbial brick wall at work is actually quite common.

But whilst you may think that others are holding you back, there’s only one person in charge of your career – and that’s you!

Because if your career isn’t going in the direction you hoped it would in your current employment, for whatever reason, you do have options.

Take Tanya, she was in a busy, responsible role working for a large blue chip company. And over the years she was there, her position evolved organically as she showed aptitude in areas outside of her core skills.

And what happened was that over time, she’d inadvertently slid into an area of the business that wasn’t where she really wanted to be, working in a department, and answering to senior level staff who were not, with the best will in the world, in a position to progress her career in the direction in which she wanted it to go.

And when she paused to think more seriously about her career, she realised she was working in an old fashioned industry, where traditional management techniques were stifling individuality and team cohesion.

Her people skills, aptitude and sheer hard work were going unrecognised, and interest in her continued professional development was distinctly on the wain.

In fact she was in real danger of her career taking a step backwards.

So, what could she do?

Tanya approached Career Voyage in a state of sheer frustration – she’d effectively hit a ceiling where she worked, and needed a positive action plan to pursue her ideal career.

And despite her feeling down about her current position, there were in fact a lot of positives to be taken from it.

As her role had evolved over the years, she’d developed a broader range of skills and experience than she’d realised, skills a prospective employer would value more than she’d thought.

And that broad range of skills gave her more options for future employment, enabling her to be a little more choosy about what the next move should be.

There are always positives to be taken from a situation, however frustrating it may feel at the time.

Being stuck in a career rut is just a moment in time: a moment when you are perfectly poised to make a career, and possibly life-changing decision to do something different.

Tanya enrolled on our Career Voyage programme, taking her through the process of identifying her strengths, her transferable skills, what working environment, job responsibilities and business culture made her tick.

We translated this into a professional resume, written to appeal to her ideal employer. And we worked with her on how to create a winning job application, how to excel at interview, and therefore secure her ideal post.

And, being ‘job-hunter ready’ her confidence grew, her ambitions became clear, and her job-seeking task became a whole lot simpler. In fact she enjoyed it!

Tanya has been through our process. She has worked hard, remained focused and yes, she did land the job she really wanted, and on a salary that made her personal dreams more of a reality.

Well done Tanya!

The process starts here at Career Voyage.

And to get started,  you may be interested in reading our white paper on Your Career as a Business. You can download it here.

Remember, if you feel like your career has hit a brick wall, it’s up to you to knock a hole right through it! We’re here to help in so many ways. Others have gone before you and moved onto brighter things. It could be you next, just get in touch.