Want to keep your career moving without having to actually move?

With so much talk around at the moment of the leverage candidates have in the job market, it’s easy to think the only, and best, option to move up the ladder is to move roles.

Some people, however, actually like their job.

It could be the workplace, the culture, colleagues, the role itself. But whether it’s talked about as much or not, it’s important to first know and then consider the possibilities open to you if you fit into this category.

So assuming you want to progress from where you are in your career, what can you do?

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, that if where you are currently is toxic for your health – mentally or otherwise – or it doesn’t have career prospects for what you’re looking for as your next step, that’s a useful indicator that a move would be a good thing. It goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, is that if where you are currently is toxic for your health – mentally or otherwise – or it doesn’t have career prospects for what you’re looking for as your next step, that’s a useful indicator that a move would be a good thing.

If that’s not an issue for you, don’t be so quick to look at jumping ship before considering a few things.

Is there trajectory available in your current workplace?

This will be a key part of helping you make your decision. And a simple one to answer – particularly if you know the trajectory you want to be on.

If there is a desirable path for you in that direction, it might be an opportunity to progress while staying with that same employer. If there isn’t a path, whether it’s undefined, or completely doesn’t allow for it, that’s also very telling for you.

Note to employers: If you have great staff leaving who otherwise seem happy, check in and ask the direct questions about the career progressions available. Maybe it simply doesn’t work for your business structure. Or maybe it’s something missing that’s impacting your retention.

And an important immediate follow on question from that is:

Have you expressed your interest in progressing your career?

Nobody can help you if they don’t know what you want. If you don’t express the desire to keep your career moving on and up, then you may not get the opportunity. Often it’s fear that holds people back from expressing their career desires in the workplace for fear of repercussion.

Because if you express it, you risk the company keeping you where you are in avoidance of the effort required to backfill any position. However, if you DON’T express your wants, that chance of remaining stuck increases exponentially.

Regardless of your gender or position, getting on the front foot and either asking for or sharing your interest in the role you want will serve you better than sitting back and waiting. The antidote to feeling the need to “quit quietly” is also to ask for that progression. How else do you stay inspired and motivated if you’re not giving yourself something to work and aspire towards?

Note to employers: Staff check ins (otherwise known as ‘performance reviews’) shouldn’t be left a whole year in between. At best, having quarterly and incidental check ins that ask questions about the goals and aspirations of your team members will help ensure the health of the employee/employer relationship.

What to do if you’ve asked but didn’t get the answer you want

Sometimes you will gather all the courage it requires to have the big scary conversation, and the response doesn’t really give you much to go with. Sometimes sharing your career goals with your employer can also feel a lot like ‘showing your hand’, so this also may leave you feeling a little vulnerable. But what if the clarity from understanding their position on it could make your progress a lot smoother? The organisation may not be ready right now to advance you, whether those reasons are due to company structure where the role doesn’t exist (yet), or that they’d like you to get a little bit more experience in certain areas first before progressing. The positive in this is that there may be the opportunity to work out a timeline that you can collectively plan in advance, so both parties have a shared trajectory and goal.

If it’s in the instance that the role doesn’t exist or they’re simply not interested in advancing you into it, all of this is useful information that you can use to assist you in the decision-making. The more you are able to remove any question or area of uncertainty from your list of things to consider, the simpler things become.

All in all, while both scenarios leave for a lot of discomfort, you’re better off finding out the information you can so you can be pro-active in your own career development. And sometimes that allows you to stay a little closer to where you are should you choose to.

We have a whole podcast episode on this topic you can listen to here!