Hit A Career Dead End? Unlock Your Career Path With These 4 Eye Opening Tips

By Perminus Wainaina

I want you and I to dig deeper into your career. Business as usual mentality has to change. As a professional, do you recall a time when you felt wasted and completely demoralized in your career yet you were obligated to wake up the next day and deliver.

Have you felt like you’ve hit an income dead end before?  Do you find yourself working like a robot? Is your work limiting your professional capabilities? Do you feel underutilized? Do you just wish you could do more?

Whether you’re pursuing a creative career or just new in the Kenyan job-seeking market, you are prone to make some difficult career decisions that will affect the outcome of your career.

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As a career coach with over 7 years in the industry, I can confidently advise you that these issues are to be approached with a lot of caution.

Unfortunately, most Kenyan professionals have no clue on when to ask for help.

If you have been experiencing this, here are the signs to watch-out for at the onset of a career stagnation phase.

4 Symptoms of Career Stagnation for Kenyan professionals

1. You feel wasted and completely demoralized by your routine work.

At this point your work has lost its meaning already since you are not making any progress toward bigger goals.

2. You feel under-utilized. Most of your abilities have remained untouched.

Are there skills you’ve acquired or talents you’ve discovered in the past few years that haven’t been put to good use or at least acknowledged? If your skills are being underutilized, it means you aren’t being applied to your full potential.

3. You feel like you need more room for growth, raise or a job promotion.

Promotions & raises aren’t always the measurement of a career success. You don’t have to earn millions or dine with Bob Collymore to feel full filled. However, after all the time & hard work, if your efforts aren’t receiving the right credits, then it is a sign of having stayed at the same job for too long.

4. You find your work boring!

There will always be days where you find yourself bored, but if it has become a chronic symptom, then you must address it.

Here’s what you need to Do About It

1. Seek advice from a professional career consultant

As I have highlighted above, the state of career stagnation is not to be taken lightly. As a professional, you spend 80% of your lifetime at your workplace.

Spending all this time bitter behind your desk is in it a disservice for your professional life, notwithstanding, your personal life. Get a session from any of the Career Coaching Experts in Kenya and crawl out of that shell.

2. Focus on the positives as you work to get the solution

Every day, do something after work that breaks the workplace monotony and makes you happy. Read a book, watch a movie, or go for a walk and enjoy the views. It doesn’t matter what the activity is, so long as it makes you happy.

3. Suggest some changes for your role at work

Discussing these issues with your director or manager could be the key to unlocking your career progress. Let them know how you feel about your work. If growth is not possible, see what you can do to expand your role. Consider what changes you’d like to see in your job that could also benefit the company and propose to your manager.

4. Finally, Take a Breather

Normally, as a professional you usually get stressed when you feel you have too much to do with increasing demands, which in turn leads you to work harder and do more, adding even more stress in the process. And if the returns do not reflect, then you feel dissatisfied.

So take a moment to make sure you’re doing things right if you’re feeling overloaded, or just give yourself some time off to make sure you’re able to recharge and refocus.

This said,

The Millennial generation, which is the workplace majority, is now setting the pace by seeking career advises in large numbers for everything from interview preparation to finding their passion or career paths.

This wrapped with the right attitude might be just what you need to break your stagnant working relationship. You deserve to earn a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in your workday.

Who knows? Your new-found positive attitude might be exactly what’s needed to help you find fulfillment in your career or the next role.