

As an interviewer, my thought would be if we hired them and they got upset, would they just walk out again? That’s a lot easier to explain during an interview than trying to build a narrative around ‘I got so fed up that I walked out’. Unless you have the financial backing to walk out, I would suggest you stay put till you have another opportunity. Sure, quit when you have another opportunity. If someone says they’re at a dead end, should they quit the company? Why or why not? If you are being honest with yourself about your feelings and capabilities, the signs might point to your making a change outside of the company. To change this, you will have to re-program how people see you by changing your behavior to one that is more compatible with the company’s leadership. It can be difficult to change the company’s perception of you if you have been with them for a period of time, however, it isn’t impossible.

Often, it is the manager who determines the department or division culture and the type of employee who gets rewarded and promoted. For example: one company may only promote top performing sales representatives into a sales manager role. Some company cultures reward/promote/recognize certain types of people or behaviors. Getting stuck in a dead end job can happen as a result of corporate culture, manager style, or an individual’s outlook. Once someone is at a dead end, is there a way to reverse it? Or are you just stuck? Have you been passed over more than once for a promotion? Perhaps you are lacking skills suitable for a promotion or maybe you don’t have the “right stuff” to get promoted in that company. Is your manager not allowing you the opportunity to take on new challenges or assignments? The company culture is one of “do your job, period”. Is there someone in the position you want but they have been in the job a long time with no indication or mention of leaving the role anytime soon?

The promotion chain in the company is stalled. More concrete examples of a dead end job could be: Indicators that you are in a dead end job might include your feeling of dissatisfaction with the work you are doing or your efforts have gone unrecognized by your manager. To paraphrase: One man’s dead end job is another man’s dream job. Someone else could be in that same spot and it could be their dream job. If you’re in a job and you want upward movement or you see no value in what you are doing, that’s YOUR sign it is time to move on. There’s no such thing as a dead end job. This could be because they do not see any possibility for promotion or because they aren’t given the opportunity to learn new skills, develop other capabilities, or take on new challenges. A dead end job usually means the employee feels stuck or stifled in their role. But let’s say someone has just said to you “I have a dead end job.” What does that usually mean?

I know we’ve all heard the phrase before. He serves on the Harvard Business Review advisory council and is a talent management contributor at TLNT: The Business of HR. Ron Thomas is director of talent and human resources at Buck Consultants, a Xerox Company. She’s the co-author of “ You Need a Job: 5 Steps to Get One!” and a regular contributor at U.S. Hannah Morgan (aka Career Sherpa) is a well-known job search, career and social media strategist. I reached out to a couple of super smart people and asked if they would share their thoughts. So I wanted to write about being at a dead end in your work life. How many times have we either heard or said those words – dead end? “I have a dead end job or career.” Or “I work for a dead end company”. My first ‘real’ job after college gave me some good exposure to HR, but it was a dead end. In the reader’s note, there was a sentence that stood out to me: I recently answered a reader question about using certification to advance a person’s career.
