Curing the Dead-End Job
Curing the Dead-End Job
I’m still reading the Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason; the book has the ancient principles of acquiring wealth and simple steps to put it into practice. What has struck me most so far are the 7 Cures for a Lean Purse. The “cures” themselves are nothing you haven’t already heard in another format, but the idea that the principles are considered “cures” lights up my mind. Truly any predicament you are in seems like a disease or sickness. To overcome whatever it is a person will need to be cured.
To be cured of anything means “a complete or permanent solution or remedy” as defined by Meriam Webster. “A lean purse” isn’t the only disease in need of curing, what about the feeling of being in a dead-end job? Working where you are, maybe there is no place else for you to go – no more promotions, no additional raises, no additional duties to be assigned to you. Quite possibly you have reached the end of the road for where you are. The worse of it is when YOU believe you’re stuck there. You begin to settle into the belief this is it and you should just be content where you are. You start every weekday morning repeating all the reasons you should be glad to have the job you have. Your mantra are all the things that could be a lot worse where you are. Gosh, what a terrible way to start the rest of your career. There is a better way.
How about curing your dead-end nothing will ever be better beliefs? I don’t have a specific list of cures, but I do have some ideas about what you can do to start the healing process:
Create a list of all the skills you’ve gained where you are
Dust off your resume, revise it using every point on your list; to include the smallest item of training new staff, submitting reports that didn’t require changing
Make a goal of 3 or 5 resume submissions per week for the rest of the year
Since you won’t toot your own horn, every job you submit a resume for has to have 1 additional perk above what you’re doing now- a better title, teleworking, additional vacation, more or less travel – money can’t be included in the perk
Reward yourself for peeling off the belief that this is the end of your career climb
Just because you’ve embraced the dead-end position you’re in at the company you’re currently working at, doesn’t mean that those around you have. This isn’t a terminal situation, there is a Cure; and you hold the key to the Cure. How exciting!