Common Career Challenges and how to overcome them

Having recently celebrated 20 years of running my own career coaching business since March 2005, I have gained many insights into what works and doesn’t work well in career management. These insights have been gained from working more than 10,000 coaching hours with over 3,300 clients from all different professional and cultural backgrounds.

Here are my 20 most common career challenges and the solutions to help you manage your career successfully.

How many common career challenges have you experienced?

What are your career challenges?

1.       Underselling Yourself

Challenge: Underestimating and underselling the value you deliver in your careers, because you don’t recognise your achievements, or feel awkward blowing your own trumpet.

Solution: Keep a record of your wins, positive feedback and achievements. This can include thank you emails, successful projects, improving systems or processes, achieving KPIs or targets, or getting recognition. Create a spreadsheet and note of where, when and how you have added value and record your success metrics. E.g. where you have delivered successful projects on time and budget, created new processes that save time, or save money. At least annually, gather this information and use it to update your resume, your LinkedIn profile and demonstrate value in your performance review.

Do you find it hard to sell your skills and experience?

2.       No Career Plan

Challenge: If you spend more time planning your holidays, than planning your career – you end up at the mercy of employers and market forces, miss promotions and can earn less. 

Solution: Work with a career coach. There is no loyalty to employees these days, so it is up to you to take charge of your career. Take time to think about what you want - where you want to be working, what industry, company, role and how much you want to earn. Create a plan with a step-by-step approach to get what you want, including any extra training, mentoring, or getting support from sponsors to help you achieve your goals.

Have you got a plan for your career?

3.       Waiting for 90%

Challenge: Waiting until you meet 90% to 100% of a job description before applying for a new job, wasting time trying to get 100%, and missing out on opportunities.

Solution: It’s very hard to find a role that is a 100% fit. Unless applying for a contractor role and need to hit the ground running, there should always be some room to learn and grow in a new role. A good organisation will provide you with training and help you to develop. If you don’t have any stretch, chances are you will get bored more quickly and feel underutilised. 

Do you wait to have 90% of skills or more before applying for a job?

4.       Overstaying

Challenge: Staying in the wrong job or career too long leads to frustration, burnout or boreout and can impact your physical, mental, emotional and even financial health. A comfort zone can become a rut, and the difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Solution: Recognise the signs that a job, company or industry is no longer right for you and make a move to get out. Is your job impacting your physical or mental health? Are you dreading going to work on a Sunday night? Has your workplace become toxic? Are you being paid less than you are worth? If any of these are true then start planning to find a new job, including updating your resume and LinkedIn and reaching out to your network.

Have you stayed too long in the wrong job or career?

5.       Tolerating a Toxic Workplace

Challenge: Nothing can negatively impact your life as much as a toxic manager or workplace, with bullying, lack of support or harassment impacting your health and confidence.

Solution: Recognise the warning signs and act, do not stay – it is not worth your health. Firstly, talk to a counsellor, either EAP or external, and work with a career coach. Chances are your confidence has taken a hit, so work with someone to help restore your self-esteem before job hunting. If the workplace actions are illegal or in breach of Fairwork, consider hiring an employment lawyer. It can be worth it.

Is your workplace making you sick?

6.       Lack of Career Clarity

Challenge: Do you know what you want to achieve in your career, what your ideal role looks like, or what companies or industries you want to work in?

Solution: It’s hard to find what you want if you don’t know what it looks like. Start by creating a list of what you do and don’t want in your work. If you don’t know what you want, then write out all the things you don’t like and create the positive opposite. Use this and market research to write your ideal job description in terms of who you to Be, activities you want to Do and conditions you need to Have.

Do you have clarity about your career direction?

7.       Being Reactive

Challenge: Waiting until you need a job (due to redundancy or a toxic workplace) before applying, leaves you with limited bargaining power and at the mercy of the job market.

Solution: Be proactive - have a plan and act on it. I have had some clients who would regularly apply for new external jobs every year, even if they were happy in their role. This enabled them to stay current and fresh. Create a list of preferred employers and proactive network with people who work there. Fortune favours the prepared.

Are you taking a targeted approach to jobs?

8.       Out of Date Skills

Challenge: It’s common to get stuck in a rut, staying in the same job for too long, and letting your skills and experience can get out of date, making you less attractive to employers. 

Solution: Stay up to date with changes in your profession and industry and ensure your skills match the changes. Do this via professional associations, mentoring, conferences, workshops and training courses and regularly checking job ads for the next level up. Low cost ways to upskill include LinkedIn Learning as part of Premium.

Are you keeping up to date in your career?

9.   Playing Small

Challenge: Are you playing small in your career and not proactively asking for what you want in terms of payrises, promotions, training or new jobs.

Solution: You need to be clear about what you want and ask for it. I’m a big believer that “if you don’t ask, you don’t get”. Remember that everything to do with your job is negotiable, whether in a new or existing job. Your best opportunity to negotiate is when you are offered a new job, followed by when you are doing well, or when you are threatening to leave a current job (if they want you). Depending on the role and organisation can negotiate your salary, work hours, leave, work from home, training, super, car, bonus and more.

Are you playing small in your career?

10.   No Evidence

Challenge: A key reason why you don’t get what you want in a new job, promotion or pay rise is if you don’t provide evidence as to why you are worthy of it.

Solution: Create a spreadsheet and work out the metrics around the value you have provided. This includes where you have saved time, saved money (clue – they are usually connected), increased revenue, won new clients etc. If you can demonstrate the Return on Investment an employer can get from you it is easier to negotiate.

Are you gathering evidence of your success?

11.   No Job-hunting Plan

Challenge: If don’t have a job-hunting plan, it’s like fumbling around in the dark, shooting blanks with a shotgun - it’s very hit and miss and causes job-hunting frustration.

Solution: Create your ideal job description, identify your preferred employers and work with a career coach on a plan to secure your ideal role. This will involve networking, building your personal brand, proactively creating job opportunities, tapping the hidden job market and patience. The hidden job market approach is more relational, relying on advertised roles is more transactional and there is a lot more competition.

Do you have a job-hunting plan?

12.   Incomplete LinkedIn Profile

Challenge: If your LinkedIn profile is just a shell with your name, job title and not much else – it is essentially useless from a personal branding and job-hunting perspective.

Solution: Spend time fleshing out your LinkedIn profile to become a powerful networking, personal branding and job searching tool. To create an All-Star profile, you need to complete all sections, flesh out your latest roles, list your top skills, and aim to get 500+ connections and 10 recommendations.

Is your LinkedIn profile complete and up-to-date?

13.   Out-of-date Resume

Challenge: If you haven’t updated your resume for years, the process is much longer, and you will have forgotten half of what you’ve done and not have any metrics. 

Solution: Get into the habit of updating your resume at least once a year, in line with your performance review. Keep track of your performance metrics and wins to put in your resume and share in your review. If you find the process like pulling teeth, then engage a professional career coach to help you. Having an up-to-date resume means you are ready whenever an opportunity comes up.

Is your resume (CV) out of date?

14.   No Network

Challenge: Many people don’t realise the value of continuously growing and nurturing their network or do it very well and miss out.

Solution: The phrases “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” and “your network equals your net worth” is so true in career management. The easiest ways to grow and manage your network are using LinkedIn, engaging in a professional association, attending conferences and training. Whenever you meet someone at an event connect with them on LinkedIn, seek opportunities to help others and reap the rewards.

Need to work on your networking?

15.   Lack of Research

Challenge: Neglecting to research future managers and organisations can result in roles, organisations and managers they you enjoy.

Solution: Do your homework. Research companies using LinkedIn, Glassdoor and SEEK reviews – but remember that people only post when really happy or really upset. The best insights come from talking to people who already work there, and the best way to access them is through your network…

Are you researching your potential employer?

16.   Not Trusting your Gut

Challenge: Some of the worst jobs happen when people don’t trust their gut during the hiring process.

Solution: Some jobs look good on paper then fail to deliver or you have an awful boss. Always trust your gut during the interview. If something seems off, or a manager doesn’t sit right with you, then it’s not the right fit. Even if this gut instinct conflicts with all the logical reasons to take a job – trust your gut first, or you may regret it.

Are you trusting your gut with jobs?

17.   Relying on ‘Merit’

Challenge: If you are relying on merit (being judged purely on your ability) or for your ‘actions to speak for themselves’ to get hired or promoted, you’ll be disappointed.

Solution: The truth is if the merit approach worked, we would not have a gender pay gap, sexism, racism, ageism, favouritism, or any other nasty ‘ism’ in the workplace. But it doesn’t. Hence, we often need policies, programs and quotas to even up the scales. Equally you can’t expect your results to speak for themselves. Instead, you need to blow your own trumpet, let people know your good results, and seek employers with a commitment to equality. Key ways to find employers committed to equality is through the WGEA list and Best Places to Work winners.

Is your workplace committed to equality?

18.       No Mentoring

Challenge: Mentoring is not just beneficial early on in our careers, it is a crucial tool for career growth, both as a mentee and a mentor. 

Solution: Whenever you want to step up to the next level in your career seek out a mentor. You can find mentors through professional associations or groups and often mentoring is free. Conversely if you don’t want to progress your career anymore, share your knowledge and experience with the next generation.

Do you have a mentor or a mentee?

19.   No Sponsors

Challenge: Many clients I’ve worked with didn’t know what sponsors are, how beneficial they can be, and importantly how to gain them.

Solution: Some of the most successful senior people gained opportunities to progress their career by having sponsors. Sponsors are senior members of your current organisation who see your talent and potential and support your career growth. The best opportunity to get sponsors is in large organisations and by building relationships with senior managers. Let them know who are, what you do and how you add value to the organisation, as a great way to build your brand.

Do you have a sponsor at your work?

20.   Small Organisations

Challenge: Unfortunately, small organisations can be some of the most toxic, without the larger organisational structures and processes to keep people protected.

Solution: Typically, medium to large organisations tend to have better HR processes, commitment to DEI, gender equality, paternity leave and are more likely to provide career progression and have greater employee engagement and retention rates. Larger organisations with more senior female leaders, also tend to have better profitability.

Is your workplace large enough to offer what you need?

So, what did you score on the common career challenges?

Where do you need some assistance in your career?

If your number is high then you would benefit from working with a qualified Career Development Professional (CDP) or Career Coach. Melita Long from Careers on Purpose is a CDAA qualified CDP with over 20 years of experience coaching over 3,300 mid-career professionals across all areas of career management including career change, planning, job-hunting, resumes and LinkedIn profiles, interview coaching, and career progression.

You Contact Melita for a free initial Career Strategy Session.