Mid Career Crisis

If your career has spanned over more than 10 - 15 years and you are seeing any of the symptoms list below then this bog would be helpful for you.

• Despite your achievements in your professional life, you are not happy from your heart.
• Or excitement level in your career has gone down and You are not looking forward to go to work each day.
• Or your role has become monotonous?
• Or you are executing mundane tasks?
• Or You are not sure if you want to continue with what you are doing currently.

What is Mid Career Crisis :

After working for many years, if you feel like stuck or directionless then you are facing Mid Career Crisis.?

It is a state when person has no control over his/her career (irrespective of starting on high/normal note) and after gaining a professional experience of more than 10 years we can assume that person is going through Mid Career Crisis.

Indications of MCC:

• No Promotion
• Working on the same role (No change in scope and responsibility) despite changing the job.
• No major change in your salary from long time (indicates your current value)
• Slowly lacking of confidence in facing adverse situations in your role.
• Feeling of knowing everything required to perform your job and no room for new learning.
• Too much focused on managing your perception among your peers and seniors rather than improving your functional skills.?
• Not getting involved in ground level work (something you started your career with) and assuming that it is someone’s else ?responsibility.
• Always criticising proposed ideas/suggestions in the meetings.?
• Feeling empowered by not sharing important information with others.
• Feeling blamed for someone else’s mistake while receiving feedback from your manager?

And the list goes on..

Below graph will provide a clarity on our career trajectory when we hit mid career crisis.

How to navigate MCC:

• Acknowledging the fact that you are in Mid Career Crisis, would help you navigate this phase as you would be curiously looking for a change by learning more about this crisis.
• Try to take help from your field specialist or get a coach who can guide you to overcome your weaknesses or convert them into strengths. Seeking inputs from others always help to uncover your blind spots.
• Define your next goal and have a plan of action e.g changing the job is normally a common choice but define what would you like to do different in your next job. This way you will feel excited while executing your plan as you will be curious and looking forward for the outcome of your actions.?

How to avoid MCC:

In the graph below, you can see that there is a growth curve which will eventually become flat after hitting the peak. This is normally our “Comfort Zone” and here we don’t grow much but enjoy the benefits of our past growth for sometime.?So identifying your growth curve and start looking for different opportunities before getting into the comfort zone is best way to avoid MCC.

Here are views from some of the industry experts:

“Never get into comfort zone” : Ian Faria

“Keep evaluating relevance of your role periodically with respect to your industry” : Karthik Krishna

“Try out new things every 2-3 years” : Venkat

How can we turn MCC into an opportunity:

Trying out something different makes more sense if we are looking for different outcome. This requires shift in mindset to experiment with our lives or try to figure out what else we are good at.

While there is no doubt about the risk factor in trying different field or work but chances of success is quite high due to following reasons:

• You have already got at least 10-15 years of experience in solving various challenges at work.
• You are aware of your capabilities/strength and weaknesses
• With your past achievements/successes, you have self-belief and right attitude towards the newer problem
• Your focus and commitment are the two weapons which are at your disposal to get you the required results.

“Out of top 10 jobs, 6 were created?in last 5 years. Never settle down in your current role. Be curious to learn new skills and try out different roles” : Ian Faria

Hope this blog gives you some direction on your career if you are facing Mid Career Crisis.

I referred below mentioned book and found it nicely written by Author with lots of case -studies to get good understanding on the subject.?

Mid Career Crisis : Why some sail through while others don't

I would like to thank Prabhakar Reddy for suggesting this topic to discuss in #TILT forum. Thanks to all the #TILT members for sharing their invaluable experiences on Mid Career Crisis. Also I want to thank Murali Sundararaju and John for hosting the event.

Thanks for reading the blog and Happy sharing!!