Is career development that important?

[headfairy]

In my current role I'm pretty highly regarded, reckon I'm at the top of my game working for a very prestigious company. However there is no career progression, no wage increases (apart from cost of living rises). It's pretty much a dead end. I can take a sideways step and move on upwards from there, but where I am at the moment I'm pretty much not moving.

Should I leave a role I'm really very good at and enjoy for a more senior role with more money just because I should keep my career developing? How important is career development for you?

It would be impossible for me step into your shoes, but try to imagine yourself in 5 years time - will you be happy doing what you are doing now or will will you feel trapped. Do you look into the future and want it to be different to now?

FWIW, I have found that my view of my career development has changed over time. When I was in my twenties, married with one child, I was very ambitious, knew what I was aiming for and how to get there.

In my thirties I was a single mum and then met my second husband, I became less ambitious and more focussed on doing a good jog in the role I was in, and slowly creeping up the career ladder (so to speak).

In my fourties with another child, my priorities changed completely, still determined to do a good job for my pay, but finding the family and things outside of work more important.

Now at the start of my fifties, I was made redundant last year and don't want to return to my old 'career'. I don't want to rush around and be so stressed as I was in my last job. I want to do different things - DH has different ideas for me unfortunately, ho hum.

Good luck with choosing though.

You should always maintain motivation and inspiration with what you do. As you said it's dead end there I think you should consider other options. However having asked the importance of career development, have you also considered the value of work-life balance to yourself? It's difficult to have everything but knowing what you want to prioritise would help your planning.

thanks poppytin and sagacious... yeah work life balance is very important to me too. But at the same time I'm getting increasingly frustrated that despite being very good at what I do, I'm getting no recognition by way of say promotions or pay rises. I know I shouldn't care what others think but my mum thinks I don't have a career but a job. My sister and I work in the same field, but apparently because my sister's career trajectory is constantly upwards she's somehow more successful than me.

But part of me hates that I'd have to leave doing what I love and what I'm brilliant at in order to move upwards.

I could have written the OP myself. I'm thinking of leaving a blue chip company to take a management role in somewhere probably less exciting. Do I stay where I am being Mrs Useful-but-never-promoted or jump out into the unknown?

OP if you're still around have you progessed in your thoughts?

wednesday... I'm still around. I've been mulling this over for months, probably even years because my company has slowly been downgrading the importance of my job. We used to have different pay levels, different levels etc, now we have just one shitty level, nothing to aspire to. Nothing to work towards. It's utterly disheartening because it's a job I still passionately believe in. But that's another story...

discussing your dilemma with dh, we've decided in your position the best thing is to take the leap in to the unknown. If you never leave, you'll never know whether you could have done so much better and you may regret it. If you leave and it doesn't work out then you can always go back. It all sounds great on paper of course, I can't really take the risk because my industry is impossible to get back in to. I have friends who took voluntary redundancy from the same job a couple of years ago and are absolutely desperate to get back in to the job. But it's horribly competitive and bloody hard to get back in to. In my 17 years in this job I've only ever seen a job for my role at my company advertised in the paper once.
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So I guess in your position it all depends on whether you think you could get back in either in your company or a similar position with another similar company... I know that it would be virtually impossible for me to do so, so I can't really risk leaving the company. However my dilemma is whether I should seek another role within the company.

Oh thanks for thinking of me! I am in the position of having just applied for and been offered another job and quaking over whether to accept it. I am going to ask for a further meeting. But I know a number of people who've left my company and come back, even been headhunted back, it is possible. If I can get one job offer then I could do it again I guess. DH thinks I should jump too, he's sick of hearing me moan about work .

I've been reading a few other threads about part time working and promotions, and there have been some really good points especially relating to management and senior roles. There was also a good point about stagnating, which can happen when you stick around in a company really to collect your maternity benefits/flexible working rather than for the job itself. No point having a crap job even in a brilliant company.

Going back to the OP, I thought career development wasn't that important, and to have a quiet life and leave at 3pm was ideal for someone with children. But looking into the future, I can see myself frustrated and too old for my grade, quietly beavering away but with no control or responsibility. I've still got 25 years of working life ahead of me and I don't want 25 years of that.

It's telling that when there were redundancies last year, I was hoping on the quiet that I might get picked on so I could look for a new direction without taking the decision myself (and with a fat redundancy cheque), but no such luck.