There can be multiple times in your career when you feel like you’ve hit a plateau. It’s not necessarily that you want to keep advancing, but you might reach a point where you feel bored or like nothing is challenging you. When you feel like your career has plateaued, you need to do something to kickstart it again—that is, unless you’re comfortable with where you are now. You can consider a range of different options for getting out from where you’re stuck. Depending on what your goals are, you can choose to make changes in your skills, your work environment, or your responsibilities.
Up Your Qualifications
Developing new skills may be the first thing that you consider if you want to take your career to new places. You can learn new things in various ways, whether you choose to go back to school officially or you just look for a self-study course that you can follow. Gaining the skills you need to become a leader or even to take your career in a completely new direction can allow you to renew your passion for what you do. There are plenty of ways to fit learning around your work and learn in your own time.
Start a Side Project
Starting a project outside of work could help you to work out where your career should go next. You can use it to learn new skills, expand your network and gain other benefits through doing something different. Your side project could be related to your current job, but maybe you’re interested in trying something new and exploring a potential new direction for your career. Just check that there are no rules against taking on work outside of your job, especially if you’re thinking about doing similar activities to your main role.
Change Your Role Internally
You can explore a few different ways to stay with your current employer but switch up your role. You might not be able to go for a promotion, but you can still look at a few options for doing things a little differently. Maybe there are new responsibilities you can take on, or you might be able to identify some improvements that you can start making to certain processes. You could also consider setting yourself some more challenging goals or perhaps getting involved in some extracurricular activities such as running a group or network for people to get involved with.
Move to a Different Employer
If you don’t think that you’re going anywhere with your current employer, looking for a new job is often a good way to get out of a plateau. It takes work and it might not be the most enjoyable thing, but spending the time looking for a new job could be the best way to renew your passion for your work. Whether you look for a role similar to your current one or you want something different, there could be a great opportunity waiting for you.
When you feel like your career has reached a plateau, there are plenty of options you can choose to climb your way out of it.