Career cycles, where do you find yourself?

As with all things in life, your job goes through different cycles. During the hunt for a new job, you are normally excited about the prospects a new position can offer you. That feeling often changes when you have to face that first day on a new job, everything feels unfamiliar, and you are trying to figure out the new office landscape. Understanding where you are in your career cycle can help you to make better decisions about what your next career move should be.

Cycle 1: “Life is a dream”
Starting a new job can be hugely exciting. You meet new people, you feel valuable, and since you are the ‘new kid on the block’, everybody showers you with attention. The first test associated with entering a new work environment is getting to grips with the people who you’ll be working with from now on. You’re also going to have to learn a lot of names and faces fast. This is especially important if you are a manager, as you will need the full support of your team to get anything done.

As you start to settle in you realize that not everybody seems that happy with the company and slowly some cracks start to appear in your dream job environment but at this point, you are still living in the proverbial dream world.

Cycle 2: “Facing up to reality”
Once you have been with the company for a couple of months and start to learn the ropes and figure out the new office landscape, you also realize that there are several imperfections. You start to think that maybe your old job wasn’t so bad as you realize that although there are new systems in place here, some are just as bad and in your opinion pointless as before. You are more and more aware of the inadequacies of your new employers and lose a bit of the positive energy you had at the start.

Cycle 3: “Dissatisfaction sets in”
As time passes you become more negative, and start to feel frustrated and demotivated. It’s hard to admit but you’ve pretty much lost that loving feeling for your job. You no longer believe that you can affect the direction the company is going and are more frequently starting to look around at other positions to find out what the market is like. You deal with a high level of boredom and a very high volume of reactive work, which means you’re not learning or growing. 

Cycle 4: “Action”
You’ve reached the cycle where you feel trapped in your job. There are no signs of a promotion, advancement, or anything new happening any time soon. The company culture may be to blame and the best way to avoid feeling trapped is to take some action.

You can hope that your company will change…again. Management and policies change very frequently these days. So, chances are if you can hang in there and be a little patient you’ll soon see changes that you hoped would occur.



However, you also may feel that no matter the change, your road has ended at this company and this might be a great time to pull out your resume and update your brag book.

It doesn’t matter which cycle of your career you find yourself in, whether you are a candidate urgently looking for a new job or somebody looking to form a long-term career-building partnership, talk to us. We have a team of dedicated consultants specializing in the Finance, IT, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Freight industries. They can connect you with Top Employers in South Africa while assisting you to map both long and short-term career objectives and advise you on what steps to take to reach your ultimate career goal. Apply today.