People begin their professional careers by looking up at a ladder, hoping to see endless possibilities. Some people like the chase for more money, bigger titles, more territory, and the status and prestige that come with it. But it’s not uncommon that, sooner or later, people begin to question what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. And if Laurence Peter is right, you can always look forward to getting promoted to your level of incompetence.1 People get stuck.
Stuck is a state of restlessness when your head, heart, job, and work environment are disjointed. Something about the environment has made you question what you’re doing, where you are in your job or career, and what the future holds.2
Maybe you’re in a job that’s not motivating you. Maybe you took a position and realize it’s not for you. Maybe you feel like Emma, that you didn’t get the promotion you thought you deserved. Maybe you’re working for a boss who’s technically bright and lacks emotional intelligence. Maybe your organization just merged—again—and you don’t know if your role will survive. Maybe you see people with mediocre capabilities moving up, which means you could be working for them one day. That’s a lot of maybes to consider. At one time, the money and the title looked good; now, they lack the power to get your juices flowing.
Early Stuck
I’ve worked with clients who, at the three- to five-year mark, begin to question what they’re doing. In the beginning, a paycheck propels new graduates through the doors to their first jobs. Adrenaline and hitting their goals get them promoted. Moving to the next level can be a steeper climb, and a promotion is not automatic. Track records, qualifications, and readiness require closer scrutiny. Quality of the work, depth, and breadth of experience are also taken into consideration. An employee at this point might expect they just need to keep doing the same things, and, as before, time and experience determine the promotion date. Their manager, however, may judge differently, even though the basis for that judgment may not be clear to the employee.
Professionals thrive on development, learning, and a challenging future—all part of the pitch they heard when they signed on. Now, they are not so sure. Top that off with the knowledge that the next rung has less space. People compete for fewer jobs, code for winners and losers. Politics and decision making are facts of life in the workplace, like it or not. High achievers are more likely to work harder and longer rather than lobby for a position. They see self-promoters and suck-ups lined up at the boss’s door. When “what’s next for me” is asked but unanswered, some of the best workers lace up their track shoes and push the front door out, not in. This is not their last place of employment, and the search is on for something where they feel valued.
The state of stuck is a documented phenomenon. In his research in the 1970s, psychologist Daniel Levinson coined the terminology the “seven-year itch” and “midlife crisis.” Levinson described how people move through cycles of stability and transition in their lives.3 The stability stage lasts around seven years, a time when people make their plans and adhere to them. Any changes are incremental, not major. But something happens over time that makes people question what they are doing. Maybe they change, their motivation and goals change, their situations change, or it could be a combination. A transition period of roughly three years follows, a time when a person reflects on the plan and the assumptions behind it.
The Midpoint—Now What?
Itches and crises combine to create one of the biggest upheavals people face at a midlife or midcareer point. People feel an unfamiliar sense of urgency. Their clocks are ticking, but they feel there’s still time. Some feel they have accomplished what they set out to do when they started, and so it’s, “Now what?” Others look back at some of their choices with regret. The struggles of “what if” and “what was I thinking” are painstakingly useless. People are attached to their achievements, in part, because their successes define their value. What once seemed so important looks different when framed in the present day. Diplomas, positions, honors, salaries, and public recognition are just a walk down memory lane. But at a deeper level, people struggle with who they are and who they ought to be.4
I’ve worked with several clients in the range of 15 to 20 years of experience, which puts them in their late 30s or early 40s. They question where they are and where they are headed. Some breeze through this period with ease, knowing it’s time for a change, willing to consider something new and actively explore what’s out there, even within the same organization. Some of these conversations were sparked because they did not get a promotion, which at this point in their career means they were passed over and are limited for upward mobility. The barriers are bigger, the numbers who rise are fewer, and the numbers who feel stuck are greater. Some are faced with the situation to have to wait it out until the person above them leaves, retires, or dies. Others have accomplished what they set out to do and face a different phase of their career which they haven’t thought about until they reached this point. Other people decide to quit the game altogether, jump off the Ladder, and head out for where their next adventure will take them.
An Expert Weighs In
Dr. Herminia Ibarra has researched the state of stuck, and her advice goes against the grain of talking only to family, friends, and trusted advisors about the future. She suggests that “the conventional, reasonable-sounding career change methods will lead to the most disastrous of results, which is to say no result.”5 She sees family as being too close to give you candid advice. Co-workers and mentors may unwittingly encourage you to stay within the current space they’re in. Career counselors may advise you to “leverage past experience in a new setting.”
Ibarra also describes why she sees self-assessment as limited:
We learn who we become—in practice, not in theory—by testing fantasy and reality, not by “looking inside.” Knowing oneself is crucial, but it is the outcome of—not the first input to—the reinvention process.6
Ibarra’s recommends to “test and learn,” crafting experiments for different working activities, searching for new opportunities by making new connections in different circles, and considering new “work identities” to make sense of new experiences.7 My interpretation—you can’t think your way out of stuck.
From Stuck to Unstuck
For several years I worked with Sam (not his real name), who had about 15 years of experience as an individual contributor and manager in engineering and information technology. It was clear he was in a state somewhere between getting by and unhappy. Sam was stuck. At that point, he enrolled in an executive MBA program, where he particularly enjoyed a financial analysis project that he and his colleagues performed for a real business. Using his contacts back in his organization, he was able to work out a transfer to the finance group. It’s a good example of Ibarra’s advice—an active “experiment” to evaluate what he learned about the potential job, his interests, and a future direction he might take.
Getting unstuck is not starting out. It’s starting over, what Ibarra describes as “defining moments [that] help people make sense of changes that have long been unfolding.”8 It may look like Sam took a wrong turn by moving into finance. Then again, maybe he realized that he was headed down the Road to Not Good Enough, and it wasn’t a wrong turn at all.
Stuck Avoidance
Scott Zarret
Founder and President, CPA Academy
While many people get stuck and unsure how to navigate their careers, Scott Zarret never got stuck. As a new CPA, he only needed two years to know that climbing the corporate ladder was not for him. What did he do? He jumped. The good news is he didn’t get hurt. As a matter of fact, he’s flourished. Today, he is Founder and President of the CPA Academy, an online education site for CPAs to earn professional credits. Scott throws in a couple of “serendipitous” moments along the path of his career, like how a company he worked for went bankrupt, which led him into new business ventures. It forced him to learn about selling and marketing, and to endure the infamous ritual of trial by fire. His mantra: “Let’s just go for it.” Let’s just go for it. Classic.
Scott credits his success to meeting plenty of interesting and interested people along the way, like Sid Kess, age 94, who Scott describes as a legend in the accounting field. Scott engages with Sid as a colleague and friend—not to mention an instructor in the CPA Academy. Scott’s story is one of trusting his intrinsic motivation to find the experiences, people, and now the business opportunity that is his livelihood and supports his family, his clients, and his staff. How does Scott define success? “Doing good for the world—moving people.”9
Food for Thought
1. Getting stuck in your career is a wakeup call that something is not right about where you are, what you are doing, what lies ahead, or what’s next.
2. Getting stuck runs the emotional gamut. According to Ibarra, some people will stay stuck in positions for years, trying to think their way out of it. Others, like Scott Zarret, operate with the spirit that opportunities lead to new opportunities. He knows they are out there somewhere. He just has to find them.
3. Professor Ibarra’s advice makes a lot of sense. Don’t try to think your way out of being stuck. You need to do something—experiment— then think why the experience was important.
4. As author David Epstein said about Professor Ibarra’s advice: “We learn who we are only by living, not before.”10
5. Don’t plan on getting unstuck in a linear way. Moving into different positions and working with different individuals is all part of the process. Just ask Sam.
6. Sometimes people get stuck because they think they must suffer in a job now, so they can do what they really want to do later. Why suffer? Why wait?
7. Some people I have worked with describe a midpoint in their career not as “stuck” as it is thinking about what’s next. If that’s you, what options are you considering and how could you test these out?
8. Who are your “Sid Kess’s,” the people who give you meaning and purpose, whether you’re in a state of stuck or running at full speed?
9. What we are witnessing today is millions of workers are leaving their jobs without having the next job, an indication that feeling stuck, valued, or engaged is not a theoretical concept. This internal dialogue is growing, and it has real consequences. How do we make sense out of this trend? What does it mean for the future of what today we know as “work?”
The Game of Ladderburning
It’s not the Ladder that is inherently bad. It’s the ideology and stories we tell ourselves about it. Ladderburning is a mindset—a belief that the greatest potential lies in connecting your head and heart as you connect with interesting and interested people around you.