Stuck In A Rut? How You Know When It’s Time To Leave

In the following article, Lewis Daidone discusses recognizing and interpreting signs that you’re advancement opportunities within your current organization just aren’t there. Lewis Daidone is a Certified Public Accountant and a consultant to tech companies and financial services firms.

Have you been languishing in the same role within your company for several years? Is it because your performance has been competent, but not stellar? Or have you just reached the limit to where you can ascend to professionally within this organization? In the first instance, you’ll want to have a frank discussion with management about how your performance meets expectations. It is not easy to self-assess and listen to criticism, but do your best to be objective and open minded. If there are no performance issues then you need to determine it’s time to make a move. In fact, if you notice the following signs, you might want to consider accelerating your job search.

Your duties have been essentially the same for a number of years.

If you have truly done your best and you have no indication from management that you have performance issues, this could be a sign that the firm is not financially sound; particularly if your colleagues are in the same boat that you are. Clearly this is a situation where you would need to make a change.

Your company has merged with another firm, and there is staff in place whose core responsibilities mirror your own.

This can be an alarming situation, but don’t lose your cool. It will take time to determine the new hierarchy and how redundancies will be resolved. Unfortunately, senior management may not be very forthcoming during the decision making process, so you’ll have to keep your eyes and ears open. During this transition period you will want to always put your best foot forward in terms of your work ethic and productivity; but you should also hedge your bet by researching opportunities outside of your firm.

Management is interviewing outside candidates for a position you thought would be a good fit for you.

If you’ve made it clear that you were interested in taking over the position, this is an especially poignant sign that you’re probably not on a track for advancement.

Remember, the important thing is to find a position that not only offers you the opportunities you currently want, but also provides you with a long term career path for advancement. Whatever you do, make sure your decision is well thought-out and deliberate, take your time because the choice you make today will impact your career for years to come.