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How to prevent being in a dead end role

4 replies

ASDnocareer · 15/07/2025 00:58

I don’t have an established career and have never had a well paid job. I got a 2.1 BSc degree with an industrial placement but it didn’t improve my prospects much and I've only worked three ‘low skilled' junior roles in FS despite trying hard to prove my worth.

I've done hundreds of tailored applications,
followed advice from MN posters, got a work
mentor, internal career coaching. It still hasn't
lead to a 'good' job with prospects yet.

Meanwhile my peers have found career paths and out-earn me.

I dream of working for somewhere I can
actually be rewarded for performance and
progress to better pay within one to two years
(always had strong performance reviews). I
feel there is little progression in my current
role and company - no one from the team has
been promoted in past four years. Manager
won't let me do a secondment or apply for
funding to study for additional qualifications either due to heavy workload. (Isn't that a
management issue if we're lacking sufficient
resource?). I don’t even get a monthly 1to1 to discuss development as she regularly cancels them because we’re busy.

I most recently got a job offer but it's still just
a junior low skilled role (‘Banking operations analyst’). How do I ensure it won’t just be another dead end junior role for me? At interview stage I asked hiring manager when they joined and about different roles/promotions they’ve done. In same time I’ve been at my own company, they were promoted twice but that still doesn’t guarantee I will be as lucky as them.

How do I know whether a role is actually worth taking and has prospects

From my job hunting experience I get rejected from better roles with prospects due to not having enough related experience - but how do I get that first worthy experience

OP posts:
user1471548941 · 15/07/2025 02:03

There are two paths from these junior operations roles. 1. Become a team manager. Usually have to be a top performer, face must fit, calm in a crisis, excellent and very precise communications and happy to drop everything and work late to cover an issue. People need to have faith you can manage others well and will be liked across the team. It’s also usually one in one out and competition for the role is fierce. 2. is Projects/Change Management/Transformation. You need to show potential and mindset for process improvement. How can you make things easier for your team by making small changes? Can you support existing project managers by providing subject matter expertise when they are working in your area? What projects framework do your firm use and are you trained in it? You may have to do this qualification independently to show commitment. Good comms skills required to explain complex issues to a wide range of levels. Knack for looking longer term, identifying issues. Happy to chair meetings, run calls/workshops, be very organised, prepare decks. Find bits of work in your current role that get you started on some of these, network and find a mentor that could help you.

Pick one, commit to it, know why it’s the right one for you and be able to articulate. Make sure your organisation has a healthy amount of this type of work and grow your network to find paths in. Know it might be a bit of a waiting game for the right role to come up and be happy to perform well in current role and ensure you have good reviews when the right thing comes up. It took me 13 months to transfer into my dream projects role but has totally paid off. DH waited 2 years for a manager role and has flown from there.

user1471548941 · 15/07/2025 02:06

Also, some orgs just aren’t a good fit- make sure you’re in a company that you think works for you culture wise first. I did 9 months in one organisation then hopped to another. The second felt like home, the people felt like me and like my drive to improve. The first weren’t that keen on change and my attitude of “look for things to try and improve” was viewed with suspicion rather than genuine helpfulness and ambition.

isitme111 · 15/07/2025 18:40

If no one in your team has been promoted in the last 4 years is it worth hanging around any longer. Surely the new job can't be any worse opportunity wise.

pearcrumblee · 16/07/2025 14:32

If you want progression then you got to be one of the best at what you are currently doing.

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