How to move up from a dead-end job

All I do in my job is think about work. Does that sound boring? To me it’s fascinating. I write about the workplace and sing about it. I draw pictures about it and speak to audiences about their work and their lives and about growing their flames.
In my opinion, work is broken. That’s why we started our company and the Human Workplace movement — to fix what’s broken about work, by teaching people how to be human at work and how to make work itself more friendly for people.

Whenever I write an article that says “You have more influence on your career and your job than you think!” hundreds of people write to us to say “No, I don’t! I’m just an ant! I’m nothing. Employers hold all the cards.”

For so many people to feel so disempowered is a crisis – a societal crisis. As little kids we knew our power. We were superheroes. We are still superheroes now, but we don’t know how to use our powers.
If you are conspiracy-theory minded, you might start to believe that schools are incubators for compliant, rule-following and uncomplaining workers. I certainly think so.

Why else would you talk so much in schools about following rules and so little about finding our passions? Why do we teach things in school that lend themselves to salaried employment rather than teaching kids to be entrepreneurs?

You can change your career situation at any time, but I can’t convince you of that. I can only reinforce what Mother Nature is telling you. Sometimes when you’re in the wrong job, your body will rebel. It happened to me. I ended up in the hospital as an otherwise healthy 39-year-old.

God wanted me out of my hell job, and I listened! Sometimes your family will tell you “You’re hurting yourself, and us. You have to do some work. You have to look in the mirror, and figure out who you are.”
A dead-end job is a job where you see no future. There is nothing to look forward to. You can be smart and creative and passionate about the things you believe, but the people at your job couldn’t care less. They want you to sit in your box and perform tasks. That’s all.

Your job title could be Database Administrator or Social Media Analyst, but you might as well be a slave carrying rocks five thousand years ago. When you’re in the wrong job, you’re stuck in time. You’re not learning. You’re not appreciated. You get no say about what you do at work and you get no recognition. How can you stay? You have to make a move.

You can climb out of your dead-end job, but it takes a shift in your mindset. You have to believe fully in your heart that you have more to offer than what your dead-end job asks of you. You may not know exactly what you want to do next. That’s okay!
You’re entering reinvention. You will gradually discover what you should be doing instead of the dead-end job you have now. You will chip away at the marble until your true self emerges from the rock.

Your first step is to get altitude on your own career. That means stopping, and taking a deep breath, and looking at your own possibilities, way beyond the job you have now.

Here are some questions to get you started:

• What do I want in my life and career that I don’t have now?
• What do I want to do with my time? What sort of work would make me feel connected to my passions?
• When I have the chance to bring all of my gifts to work, what good effects am I able to have on the organization I work for? When have I felt triumphant at work, and truly alive?
• How could I use my talents to make a much bigger impact at work than I do now, and to move myself into a job that I’ll love, and not just tolerate?

Most people fear change. We get comfortable even in bad situations. We think “Well, at least I have a job.” So what? The job could disappear tomorrow. What if you took matters into your own hands and started looking for a better job right now, this week?

There could be a better job for you inside your own organization, if you like the firm you work for but hate your assignment. If you like the people and the mission, you could give your company a chance to keep you, but don’t do that until your job search outside the organization is well under way!

At the right time, when you have other irons in the fire and are getting interviews in your under-the-radar job search, you’ll approach your HR Director or somebody who could help you get out of your dead-end situation.

You’ll say “I’m looking at my career over the long term. I have some ideas. There might be opportunities for me to make a bigger contribution here. Would you have time to chat with me about that?”

If they’re smart, they’ll listen to you and help you navigate a career shift right in the organization. If they are blinded by the bureaucratic structure and won’t engage with you, that’s fine — you’ll move on, and they’ll miss you after you’ve left.

You can start your reinvention and job change by answering the questions I listed above. Then, imagine your ideal job. Write about it. Get a journal and start to write in it every day or every other day.

Write about your job search even before it’s begun! Write about what you do well and what you love to do. Write about what you’d do all day at work if you had the chance.

In 2012 when we started our company, Human Workplace, I thought of myself as a speaker and consultant who likes to write. My colleague Molly said “Why don’t you draw some images for our website?” I didn’t have one colored pencil or marker in my house.

I used to draw when I was a kid. I squeezed out just enough free time to take one drawing class in 1994 when my twins were a year old. I still have the drawings from that class in my garage somewhere. I always said “It’s too bad I gave up drawing, because it was fun.”

That was a choice on my part, but I didn’t realize it. Life gives us just enough time to do what’s important to us. In 2012 Molly nudged me to start drawing again and now I draw every day.

Drawing turns out to be very important to me, not only because it’s a great way to communicate ideas, but because it helps me open up a channel to my higher self, and that is what I need to do to move the Human Workplace mission forward.

How can you open a channel to your higher self, and bring more of yourself to your work and your career? There are always “good reasons” not to budge from your current spot, even if you hate it. There is always another bill to pay.

If you accept the idea that your priorities for your own limited time here on earth are more important than paying off your debts right away or buying a big-screen TV, you can have what you want.

You’re going to have to go and get it. The learning process will be unbelievable. You will be so glad to have big, strong muscles after you’ve taken the initiative to change your life and career – and you’ll have those muscles forever!

You can launch a job search now and be in a better job by the time the kids get out of school in a couple of months. Imagine your commute — you’re singing in the car because you’re happy. Imagine your co-workers, telling you “You rule! How did you come up with that idea? You are the best!”

When you write your resume, put a human voice in it it. Tell your human story. Use a conversational tone and the word “I,” by all means — you’re talking about yourself! If you run into forbidding and nasty recruiting processes at bureaucratic organizations, run away! You don’t need any more of that energy than you’ve experienced already.

Most of the new jobs being created these days are jobs in smaller companies. You can certainly go to work for a large firm, but if you do, make sure that the human element is loud and proud throughout the recruiting pipeline.

The minute you feel you’re being talked down to or insulted, run away! That’s how you will signal the universe that you deserve better. You have to believe it. You have to believe that you deserve what you want, and that it is out there.

I promise that when you believe that, opportunities will show up. I have seen it happen thousands of times. Our business and mission are predicated on the idea that we get what we believe we deserve and are willing to work for. What do you think you deserve?

If you’re trapped in a dead-end job and you know you can do more at work than you’re doing now, then I’m speaking directly to you right now. This is your moment. Step out and make your move!

Dead-end jobs are painful gifts. They signal us when the weather has shifted and it’s time to move on. You can sit and stay and complain about it, but who does that help? Your body knows the truth.

You were born for bigger things than a boring dead-end job where no one around you can see your flame. God bless those teachers for the lesson they’ve taught you. You’ve completed our lesson. It’s time to move on.

You have nothing more to learn in the small box you’re in. The rest of your life will play out on a bigger stage, and it’s out there waiting for you to make your entrance.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Liz Ryan is the CEO and Founder of the Human Workplace.

Image: Pedestrians cross a road at Tokyo’s business district September. REUTERS/Yuya Shino.