20 Something Career Conundrum
This is essentially a time everyone in the Career Surf Race faces. Jumping off the college fence and vigorously trying to make an impact on almost and literally everyone in the Corporate World becomes the mission. It lasts for some months or some early years of the Professional life and then it tappers. It starts feeling stagnant and the work which used to pump up the motivational boosters, seem to be sitting down somewhere unstirred. This specifically happens once you have spent little too much time doing the same task or role for a number of years together. The monotony creeps in and there is an unsaid inertia which lurks in your professional attitude too. This might look easy to read or hear but ask the person going through this conundrum and you shall know exactly what level of change arises in the psyche of the person and many a times lands up stifling the person both professionally and personally. A real good asset to the company can also become a huge liability, or a white elephant, as they call it, if not dealt with properly. Especially, for the budding professionals across industries, who are yet to make it big as dreamt of, need to handle this crucial phase very strategically, and as they say, it’s all in mind, a small tweak in thought process or a real conscious effort in attitude can bring about a sea change.
And here is how…. There are very simple ways to deal with this 20 Something Career Conundrum syndrome:
1 and the hardest is to talk to yourself and find out what you actually want to do and achieve. Asking straight and rooted questions to yourself can reap a lot of vital answers based on which you pivot yourself on the Career Trajectory. If the current role and field can in future facilitate the same, with a minor or major changes, you can achieve great milestones for your own good. Ultimately, do what makes your soul happy and your heart smile.
2 and possibly easier is to find a mentor and talk all possible, plausible, perpetual and palpable issues and solution to her or him. The best is to walk upto your boss and read out your mind. Make sure you don’t fumble. Having gone through the same phase earlier, having a significant position in the organization and having a close working stint with you, your boss can actually guide you for better. Trust their views once you confide in her or him.
3 being the easiest option is explored first usually. You can always try and handle this arduous and daunting phase by moving to another project, role or field. Sometimes, simply enrolling yourself for tenure based special projects or initiatives can also lift up the spirit seeming to be fizzing out slowly.
All you need to keep reminding yourself is not to be a cry baby and not to give up. Constantly telling yourself that time can be demanding and intimidating but you have to unabashedly up your Game every time you run down. Also knowing as a matter of fact that you are not the only one. Every professional goes through the same feeling, same phase at some point in time and all you can do about it is deal with it, fight it out if need be and come out victorious.
CFO at Hive | SoF Podcast Host | Former SaaS founder and investment banker
10 å¹´I agree that the 1st point of talking to yourself is indeed the toughest. There are so many things one would potentially like to do and many times it's hard to ascertain which one will be the most satisfactory from a professional as well as personal perspective. Specially when multiple prospective avenues are somewhat foreign to you, the decision becomes harder. I have noticed that doing simple, smaller things in order to thoroughly weight-in your options helps a lot and it could even be as naive as jotting down pros and cons on a sheet of paper and matching your short- and long-term goals against those. Also good to understand that making compromises is not a bad thing in itself if you know and can appreciate what you are getting against it, but it's very important to make sure the stakeholders know about the compromise and also buy-into them, for them to be worthwhile.
Founder at Tax Quotient
10 å¹´Nice post. Guess this is a universal experience. Natural for humans. You are right, doing what you really want to do will ensure freshness. But some people legitimately want to do different things from time to time. Also intelligence often cannot be harnessed and comes along with a predisposition to quick boredom if not continuously challenged intellectually. The trapeze artist's act in a circus looks amazing and exciting to the audience. But when one does it three times a day and 260 days in a year. It gets boring. Monotony is a part of life and is true in business or any walk of life. There is monotony in nature too... seasons, heartbeats, births, deaths.... The trick probably is to remember every day is a new day and the first day for the remaining part of your life and more importantly you are given the option to become a new person. The person you want to become. Even when doing the same things, doing it differently, better. Continuously better. And once in a way, change the entire context, back ground and anything you wish completely.
Strategic People Professional | CIPD Level 7
10 å¹´Thank you everyone for reading the post and also liking it. I wish to invite everyone to discuss about their own such experiences. This can give all of us great leads when we are required to mentor our juniors through our Collective Experiential Learning.