Counterintuitive Tips for Boosting Your Career – Business Tips & Advice

You’ve heard all the usual tips for getting ahead in your career: have goals, be a team player, network more. You do all that and then some, yet you still feel stuck.

What’s going wrong? The answer is probably nothing–feeling stalled at certain points in your career is actually normal and can be good impetus to shake things up. If you’re feeling as though it’s time for a challenge or a change, consider the points below.

What You’re Bad At

A lot of career advice is oriented toward figuring out what you’re good at and bolstering those skills, but what about the things that you’re bad at? Thinking about the areas where you’re really not very secure about your abilities can have a couple of effects. First, it helps you take yourself less seriously.

It can be tough to admit to not being competent across every skill set, but no one is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Second, it gives you the opportunity to shore up that weakness.

You could see if your company will pay for you to do a training, but if they won’t, you could foot the bill for one yourself. If you don’t have the cash on hand, the best way is to finance by taking out a personal loan. Usually, you can quickly complete the application for a personal loan online and get an answer.

What You Dislike the Least

Another interesting exercise is to think about the tasks or elements of your current job or jobs you’re considering that you are good enough at but that you dislike doing. Which one do you dislike the least? If you’re wondering about the point of this, it’s that there is no job in the world that comes with zeros negatives.

Also consider the element of work from home jobs, hybrid opportunities, and full in-office positions. Entrepreneurs must deal with financial uncertainty; actors and artists have to face constant rejection; corporate attorneys have to work long hours. Essentially, this question helps you figure out what sacrifices you’re willing to make and which ones you aren’t and thus can help you better choose a career move that will lead to more life satisfaction.

Being Indispensable

The necessity of making yourself indispensable is another piece of career advice you may have heard, and you might well have embraced it because on the face of it, it makes sense. After all, if you are indispensable, your company will value you and can’t afford to lose you. Furthermore, it may seem like it can give you leverage if you want a raise or have other requests.

However, there’s another side to this. If you’re indispensable, it’s hard to take a vacation or even time off. If you’re the only one who can do or fix something, the company is always going to want to make sure you are tethered by your phone if nothing else. This approach can also backfire if you start to be seen as someone who is hoarding knowledge and who is not a team player.

A better approach than remaining in what can quickly become an unhealthy relationship with your workplace is to stay nimble, keep your resume up to date and recruiters on speed dial, and be ready to jump ship at any time if the company or your priorities change.

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