What To Do When You’re In A Dead-End Job

Being stuck at a dead-end job is not an ideal situation for you or your employer. Being at a job should be rewarding and fulfilling.

We’re here to cover the problems with dead-end jobs, signs your career might be at a standstill, and what you can do to get out of it and move on to your dream job.

Key Takeaways:

• When getting out of a dead end job you need to consider what skills you want to use, changing your role, and updating your resume.

• Staying at a job that isn’t going to reward you can lead to lack of motivation and dreading the job.

• A sign that you are stuck at a dead end job is that there’s no clear path for promotion or advancement.

• Not everyone can leave their dead-end job but if you have the opportunity to find something else, take it before it goes away.

How to Get Out of a Dead-End Job

It’s important to note at this point that not everyone has the ability to get out of a job that they recognize as being a dead-end.

If you’re the kind of person staying in a dead-end job because you have no other choice or because you’re waiting for a time when better opportunities will be more likely, then it’s totally fine to spend a little time in this position.

But if you’ve got the skills, education, and opportunity necessary to move into something better than what you have, it’s worth mentioning that there are a lot of people out there who simply don’t realize that a better job is possible for them.

1. Think about what upsets you about your current position. Is it just a lack of opportunity for advancement, or is it the job itself? If you’re not happy with your career in the first place, then a change in position (even to one with more opportunities to progress) won’t solve your problems.

   Identify what makes you feel that you’re in a dead-end job so that you can better approach the resolution. It might mean a whole new job or it might just require a chat with your boss, depending on what the issue is.

2. Consider what skills you like using. If your job is dead-end because you’re not having the chance to use all of your skills, then consider what type of jobs might let you put those skills to good use.

   Read through job postings for jobs you might be interested in to see where your skills are valued. A career change into a new role or industry might feel impossible, but some of your skills might be valuable in places you never expected.

3. Change up your role. If your company is large enough, see if there are any positions in a different department that might be more up your alley in terms of responsibilities or advancement opportunities. Finding a job in a situation like this is often easier than looking elsewhere.

   If you have a good relationship with your boss, reach out to them and express how you’re feeling professionally stuck (don’t use the term “dead-end job”). They might have solutions you hadn’t considered, like changing up your responsibilities, your team, or even providing professional development opportunities.

   If your boss is a big part of why your job feels like a dead-end, then consider going around them to HR directly and seeing if there’s another department where your talents could be put to use.

4. Update your resume. A job hunt is going to be the logical next step for anything at this point, and the first step to a job hunt is always ensuring that your resume is as up-to-date as possible.

   The best way to update your resume is to start with a job search. By reading job descriptions closely, you can see what elements of your background are most worth emphasizing on your resume.

   Hiring managers and recruiters (and applicant tracking systems) look for keywords to match up, so customizing your resume for the job, or at least the industry, helps optimize it.

Signs You’re Working in a Dead-End Job

It’s not always easy to pinpoint which jobs are dead-end and which aren’t. Even a job that you enjoy and get a lot out of can be a dead-end one, if it meets the right characteristics.

Just remember; a dead-end job has an objective component (lack of upward mobility) and several subjective ones.

Here are some signs your job might be a dead-end one:

1. There’s no clear path for promotion. This is the classic sign of a dead-end job.

   Whether it’s because your contributions aren’t valued, all the positions above you are filled for the foreseeable future, or your whole department is always under a microscope for possible redundancy, you feel pretty certain that there’s no chance of moving up in your company.

2. You’re not interested in taking a promotion even if you were to be offered one. This one’s just as important, psychologically, as having no hope of a promotion.

   If you’re working a job where the responsibilities don’t excite you, or even wear you down, then you probably wouldn’t be any happier taking a similar role with more of the same responsibilities. This may just be as far as you’re interested in going down this particular career path, and it might be time to start considering a new one.

3. The company hires from the outside rather than promoting from within. Employers make it pretty clear what potential they see in internal candidates when they continually make outside hires.

   This is especially true if you’ve expressed interest in a position that your employer decided would be best filled from the outside.

4. Your employer has you do the exact same things every day. When there’s no clear sense of progression of your job duties, you can feel a bit like a cog in a machine. And maybe not even a very important cog, at that.

   If you’re sidelined to rote work, it’s a sign that your boss doesn’t value your contributions or trust you with greater responsibility.

5. The company is no longer growing. Or it wasn’t growing in the first place. You can read the room to tell how your situation is changing based on things going on at a macro level.

   If you look around and see more employees than needed, you’d better believe your company’s management has noticed this as well. This means most people are staying still and very few are going to get a chance to rise. You might also notice an increasingly high turnover rate.

6. You hate your job. Okay, so not every job you hate is technically a dead-end job, but this gets into the psychological aspect of “dead-end.” If you actively dislike your coworkers, absolutely dread going into work, find your job’s tasks heart-rendingly stressful or mind-numbingly boring, or some combination of all the above, it’s time for a change.

Dead-End Jobs FAQ

1. What’s wrong with working a dead-end job?

   There’s nothing really wrong with working a dead end job. The biggest thing about working any job is just that you’re making enough money and that your job satisfies you, and oftentimes even those things are luxuries.

   But if you have the opportunity to find new jobs and feel that your current one isn’t leading anywhere, then there are a lot of good reasons to try to find something new — even if your brain doesn’t want to believe that you should leave your comfort zone.

   Even if you move to something with the same pay and mostly the same responsibilities, being in a position that has genuine upward mobility will help you muster some motivation for completing your job’s responsibilities beyond the simple fact of having to do them in order to get paid.

2. What is a dead-end job?

   A dead-end job is a position that offers little or no room for professional growth and development. There’s no set of occupations that qualify as “dead-end.” Any job that doesn’t provide you with a path towards your ultimate career goals qualifies as a dead-end job on some level.

   Typically, dead-end jobs won’t give you many chances at a substantial raise, let alone a promotion. Regardless of your time with the company, you feel that upward mobility is completely shut off for you.

   A true dead-end job fails to satisfy your passion and curiosity. You simply show up, perform a set of routine tasks, and go home feeling like a robot. It’s about more than missing out on raises or getting promoted to a similar job with more responsibilities. The duties of the job just don’t excite you and you have little enthusiasm to get your basic work done, and no intrinsic motivation to put in extra effort.

3. Can I be happy at my dead-end job?

   Yes, there are ways to be happy at a dead-end job that you don’t like. If you aren’t able to leave your dead-end job just yet, there are ways to make it better. You can either choose to see your job as dreadful and terrible, or you can make the best of it. Some of the ways to do that are:

   • Look on the bright side and any good things that happen.

   • Make new friends and make connections with your coworkers.

   • Use this job as a stepping stone to something bigger.

   • Take the time to learn new skills to help you achieve your bigger goals.

Final Thoughts

Changing jobs is a major decision to make. It can take you away from comfortable (even just plain old stable) situations, and there’s a lot of risk involved.

That’s why it’s extremely important to know what you’re leaving, and what you’re leaving it for.

Trading one dead-end job for another isn’t going to do you any favors, after all.

So whatever you do, make sure that any new situation you enter is going to be one that’s good for you. Learn from your dead-end job experience, and you’re one step closer to landing your dream job.

Author

Ryan Morris

Ryan Morris was a writer for the Zippia Advice blog who tried to make the job process a little more entertaining for all those involved. He obtained his BA and Masters from Appalachian State University.