What do you do if your career in CSR is stagnant?

1-Invest in professional development: Attend workshops, courses, or conferences to enhance your skills and knowledge. 2-Network actively: Build connections with professionals in CSR and related fields to discover new opportunities. 3-Consider mentorship: Seek guidance from experienced professionals or mentors in CSR to gain insights and navigate career challenges effectively.

It is expected that your career in CSR is promising and growth-oriented. More opportunities coupled with added authority and responsibility is part of career growth in CSR framework. Access to new projects in emerging areas like sustainability, gender empowerment, environment, employment generation and solar energy applications may provide impetus to one's career. Adding skills in digital domain will open up more opportunities. Core competency development is the basic foundation for growth prospects in CSR career. Identify the right sources for upskilling yourself like certification in CSR thrust areas, training programs and webinars, mentoring by experts and OJT. Upskilling also can be made possible by reading books and journals.

Being part of the changing process is particularly important at CSR initiatives. Sometimes is a good idea to join a non-paid effort that you may consider of relevance at your community or at social groups. But is a good idea to have that informed at your organization, as to avoid surprises. As your pro bono initiative start getting relevance, naturally your organization may see on that an opportunity to be supported, leading to internal recognition and new career opportunities.

If your career in CSR feels stagnant, consider diversifying your focus within the field. CSR intersects with various disciplines such as accounting, PR, HRM, finance, supply chain, and IT. Take the time to identify which aspect of CSR motivates you the most and aligns with your career goals. Expand your network, engage with influential CSR thought leaders, and invest in furthering your skills and education through online courses or workshops.

If you are only doing the same stuff along years, you will become an specialist on that topic. However, in an changing world, you have to become a generalist specialist, being able to connect dots. Hence, embracing change is not bad; and I could say that is mandatory to others have a greater perception about yourself. Changing organization to a more conflicting one may sound strange, but the learning opportunity is significant, specially because not everyone is willing to risk gaining knowledge. Perhaps, the question should be what are you willing to reach in the future. If you want to do something substantial, you will learn that all big names had went through major career challenges and risks, those were important to build a reputation.

Communication is mandatory. If you are doing something relevant, people have to learn about it. If people don’t learn about your positive impact, how are you expected to improve your career? It is necessary to consider communication efforts and to increase awareness to your CSR initiatives - both private and corporate efforts.