What is one way to avoid being pigeonholed in your career?
To help you avoid being pigeonholed in your career, we asked CEOs and HR leaders this question for their best recommendations. From expanding your comfort zone to demonstrating your flexibility, there are several tips that may help you overcome career limitations in the future.
Here are eleven recommendations to avoid being pigeonholed in your career:
- Expand Your Comfort Zone
- Learn, Train and Be Transparent
- Leave Your Job or Standardize Your Work
- Stop Saying “No” to Other Responsibilities
- Be Proactive in Seeking Out New Opportunities
- Pay Attention to New Tech Trends
- Continue Your Education
- Add Value by Learning New Things About Your Industry
- Follow the Leaders
- Overhaul Your Image Strategically
- Demonstrate Your Flexibility
Expand Your Comfort Zone
There is a fine line between promoting a brand and becoming branded. And while we all want to become the “go-to” person for a valuable skill, success rarely comes from being a one-trick-pony. The secret to not getting pigeonholed is to occasionally take on projects that are outside your comfort zone. Playing a supporting role, showcasing your ability to learn, and demonstrating a little vulnerability along the way can help others see you in a new light. Don’t worry. Your expert status will remain intact. Your openness will simply let the powers that be know you’re open to next-level opportunities.
Tim Toterhi, Plotline Leadership
Learn, Train and Be Transparent
Always be learning. Technology is always changing as are the strategies that business leaders use to get results. It’s essential to continue learning within your industry or field so that you don’t get left behind.
Train for the job you want. Additionally, to avoid getting pigeonholed in a lower level position, think about where you want to advance. Pay attention to the work that is being done by your colleagues who are a few steps ahead of you in the advancement pipeline and learn the skills that are essential to their jobs.
Be transparent about your goals. Talk to your supervisor about your future goals. Let them know where you see yourself and how you’d like to advance in your career in the future. Being transparent about your ambition lets your supervisor know that you are interested in and don’t want to be passed over for future opportunities.
Anna Caldwell, Beyond Finance
Leave Your Job or Standardize Your Work
I view a job as a temporary solution to a permanent problem. That problem is how you make a living. If you are pigeonholed at work or stuck in your current position for a variety of reasons (no room to advance, specialization, too valuable to promote, no viable replacement), there are a few options you can take. Option 1- leave the company. This is the most drastic, but I would advise setting up a transition time (2-3 months) in which you tell your company you want to leave, please find my replacement so you can train them and create a smooth transition. Option 2 – develop and standardize your work and the work of your peers. Develop a method and plan to manage your job and others that are similar. In this scenario, you are creating a position for yourself and can show management improvement, standardization, and benefits of creating the position.
Joseph Romani, Chewy
Stop Saying “No” to Other Responsibilities
This is an obvious one but one that is important to bear repeating. Throughout my career, I’ve noticed people who never took on any new responsibilities or volunteered to look into other facets of the business almost always lost out on opportunities to transition to a different field because they had no real experience to speak of.
Trendy Tan, QuickHR
Be Proactive in Seeking Out New Opportunities
Your professional identity is defined by actions and experiences, like the projects you take on or the certifications, skills, and accomplishments on your CV and resume. If these all focus on the same type of work, your colleagues and managers are going to think that’s all you do. You can change this by actively pursuing new skills and professional experiences. Look for projects you can take on in your current role that push you outside your usual niche or comfort zone, and ask your manager about opportunities for cross-training or reskilling that exist within the company.
Archie Payne, Caltek Staffing
Pay Attention to New Tech Trends
The best way to avoid being pigeonholed is to stay up to date on trends. As technology evolves, so do the skills that are in demand. If you find yourself being pigeonholed, explore the different avenues that technology opens up, that suit your unique talents and interests. This can be done through side projects or new initiatives.
Jonathan Baillie Strong, Spotlight Podcasting
Continue Your Education
I used to be a developer before becoming a project manager, then an educator/business owner in the space. I believe continuous education is the secret to keep evolving in your career. When you educate yourself, you can take on more roles, wear more hats, etc. This lets you be more useful and naturally leads to career growth, new opportunities, and so on and so forth. I know this as someone who’s helped thousands of people get the education they need to advance their career!
Cornelius Fichtner, PM Exam Simulator
Add Value by Learning New Things About Your Industry
Employee stagnation, a concept I coined, is an organizational challenge that occurs when lower-level staff feel disconnected from the company, middle-management runs into delays that impede progress and organizational effectiveness, and the executive leadership has an inability to get rid of structure or human resource obstacles. We live in a time when we have access to a wealth of information at our fingertips. However, having access to information, acquiring knowledge, and applying the lessons in our personal or professional lives is another conversation. When we are willing to learn new things about our industry, respond swiftly to market trends, or discover innovative approaches that help our organizations move forward toward goal achievement, we avoid being pigeonholed in our careers. While certain members benefit more from strengthening and showcasing their skills set, all members of the organization must work together to shape and produce high-growth opportunities.
A. Margot Blair, AMB Consulting & Co.
Follow the Leaders
Use social media to follow leaders in other careers you admire, especially if you don’t know them! Window shop other people’s careers by following what they’re talking about, who their followers follow, etc. When you follow the right people, something will resonate with you and then it is time to engage. Comment, tell them you like what they posted or see things a bit differently. Make new friends.
Juan Kingsbury, Career Blindspot
Overhaul Your Image Strategically
It’s your mission to overhaul your image strategically. To shift someone’s perception of you, it’s important that you must give them a reason to believe in you. Next, make sure you have the opportunity to demonstrate your learning capacity and potential. Put the focus on your willingness to try, your openness to learning, and your commitment to the team’s success. Lastly, show them that you have opinions, don’t be afraid to speak out because usually, we believe that always agreeing is good. However, once you let them know where you stand without them asking, you have earned their respect.
Tristan Harris, Thrive Agency
Demonstrate Your Flexibility
If the interests or skills appear to be limited, you are more likely to be pigeonholed at work. People begin to regard you as someone who can be moved around easily when you demonstrate your capacity and desire to flex, depending on the demands of the team and company. Your skills may be used in various ways, and you’re willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to aid others in succeeding. This not only establishes you as a strong team player but also demonstrates to others that you are capable of more than simply your current duty. As a result, imagining you in other roles in the future isn’t such a stretch.
Wesley Exon, RNT to BSN Program
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