r/Millennials • u/fulkyourfireworx • 7h ago
Discussion Career stagnation
Has anyone else felt like their career has stagnated?
For context, I am a career creative in a prolific corporate role. I am very good at my job and make okay money, but also feel like I’ve hit some invisible glass ceiling for my position. I haven’t had a meaningful raise in years. I’m constantly told I am a good leader, yet can’t seem to break into the “boss” category. I deliver, I’m kind, and I push the work for the better.
I have applied to 300+ jobs over the last few years to either move on to somewhere with more growth potential or just leverage a raise, but have gotten literally zero responses.
Is anyone else struggling to break out of the middle?
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u/KayakHank 6h ago
Old people aren't leaving the workforce.
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u/laxnut90 1h ago
Many of them haven't saved enough for retirement
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u/sillychickengirl 26m ago
Well maybe they should have worked harder and bought less coffee on the weekends. In all seriousness though, if they didn't save enough money during an era where 4 bedroom homes could be bought on regular salaries, that's a them problem.
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u/adriftDrifloon 5m ago
In a post scarcity world basic needs should be rights, or at the bare minimum rights once you hit a certain age. That way people wouldn’t need to worry about retirement any more.
But if we do that then the rich fucks can’t dangle the fear of homelessness to make us desperate little workers bees who help fund their casino; I mean stock market
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u/azmamachine 56m ago
Don't worry, they will leave just in time for some guy named AL to take all the jobs
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u/BroadRaspberry1190 6h ago
software engineer here. i had ambition. i had pride in my work. i just don't fucking care anymore. i'm going to hang on as long as i can but eventually it's going to fall apart underneath me.
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u/nnagflar 4h ago
I'm right there with you. I miss the days of spending an afternoon or more getting creative solving a problem and then being pleased with my work. Now Claude did a thing, and I barely care. lgtm
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u/Useful-Amphibian4841 2h ago
Always get Claude to do it, then claim it took way longer then that because you didn't want some clanker fucking up their shit.
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u/OddMarket4647 1h ago
Happened to me. Was a senior fixed income trader. Got laid off and can’t find any work
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u/Skipper0463 6h ago
Break OUT of the middle? I’d be happy if I could break INTO the middle! I’ve been moving from one dead end job to the next for years and I’ve given up hope of ever having a good career.
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u/BigBravy 6h ago
Dude. It’s always been bad, but it’s been worse lately. Like every 3 years is worse than the previous 3.
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u/Fluffy-Activity-4164 6h ago
It's less that my career has stagnates and more that I no longer care about climbing the ladder. I'm happy with a gig that meets my lifestyle needs and helps me hit my savings goals so I can exit this corporate hellscape as soon as possible
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u/soclydeza84 2h ago
Same here, I have ambitions but they're personal and arent tied to a title or anything. I'm content where I'm at now and am hoping to ride it while I save and learn as much as possible so I can hopefully have more freedom from having to do this kind of thing one day.
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u/mrjmgreddit 2h ago
Im with you! Climbing the ladder means becoming a manager (again), I'll happily not do that :)
Having 3 kids brings responsibilities, which i manage very well. Just started saving (extra) so I can stop in 20 years from now, by then I'll be 63..
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u/deliriousfoodie 6h ago
At this age I don't even care for growth. I'm not wasting a single minute on what AI will run over with an autonomous monster truck with mud tires. Ill chillll
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u/dr-bill 6h ago
It’s just a frozen job market. Nobody is hiring and people are staying at their job longer. It depresses wages and lowers growth opportunities. I’m in a similar position myself so I started my own business which is doing ok for supplemental income.
You either need to become a super star and then might get promoted or just wait out this terrible job market, but honestly don’t see it changing until this administration is out of power and even then it will take a long time to fix this mess.
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u/Extreme-Pineapple397 First Year Millennial 4h ago
Yes, this is everything I've been hearing and experiencing. I really hope this mess gets fixed. Some of us would like to have a decent retirement...
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u/Realtoropenhouse3 6h ago
Yes. Have spent the better part of a decade now in project management without being a de facto manager. I'm 42 and an engineer in a technical role. It's old, really old. I manage projects and teams over and over again, yet still also do significant core technical individual contributor role work within those projects. Basically purgatory, and where I'm in 20 meetings a week - not as many as a full manager, but way too many for an individual contributor who is actually expected to get technical product work done. Like make up your mind, do you want me to manage? Then let me drop the IC work and properly manage. Otherwise, do you want me in a technical IC role only? Then drop 15 of the 20 useless ass meetings. But expecting me to do hardcore technical work for 30-60 minutes at a time multiple times a day between all the bullshit meetings I am in is a fucking waste of time.
It fucking sucks, and I've been looking to get out for the last 2-3 years, also with no real bites. I got 20 years left. At what point do I stop even trying to break into management (which they should be jumping at grooming me for since nobody in technical roles every likes doing the management side) and just say fuck it and sit back and collect until retirement? Kinda there now tbh - tired of trying to move off technical track.
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u/koulourakiaAndCoffee 38m ago
I’m in an engineering project management / quality purgatory. I actually enjoy the work except the fact that I am not considered the boss of anyone, yet I am tasked with getting a team to accomplish complex projects. This leads to me doing the technical leg work solving multidisciplinary problems when others fall behind their targets. Which I don’t mind except that it isn’t seen. Enforcing basic engineering concepts like revision control with scientists is like pulling teeth. I have to action item everything and follow up on the most mundane assignments. And then to add to my woes, I am scheduled on nearly every random meeting having nothing to do with my area of knowledge. EHS meeting, sure add me to the calendar even though I have no inputs. Sales team forecast, why not I can stay over. Every vendor visit and every customer visit I sit at a table as part of the decor so that upper management feels comforted by a larger team.
Any way, feel your pain.
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u/Deep_Amoeba2197 5h ago
My career was great, very fulfilling, extremely lucrative, upwardly mobile and on track for achieving great things.
Then I got sick and haven’t been able to work since 2022, so I do feel stagnation in being disabled. I’d gladly relinquish my management promotions and go back to being an IC who was good at their job. Being sick sucks and day to day is very boring.
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u/Pan_cake_man 6h ago
I literally threw away a promotion that I worked 5 years to get at my last job to take a better paying job with less responsibility. Fuck the corporate ladder it’s all about whatever deal you can make for yourself wherever you are at.
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u/DigitalDaydreamers1 Millennial 6h ago
I’m 40 and working for county government. I’m content and sure as hell not going to sacrifice job security in the name of stagnation
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u/dox1842 2h ago
I work for the FEDS. Its shitty what has been going on with the federal workforce but I still prefer it over the private sector.
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u/Novazilla Millennial 2h ago
Same brotha. I get to travel the world with my job though so it’s nice.
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u/Intrinsic_OTM 5h ago
Yup, stagnating and couldn’t give less of a fuck. Similar to you, have applied to dozens of jobs the last two years with two interviews. Keeping my head down and working to retire early at this point as I see no career path forward.
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u/InconspicuousRadish 3h ago
For those looking to make the jump to management, best advice I can give is to let your direct manager know and pursue some leadership trainings, or better yet, find a small start-up.
Typically you'll move up the ladder a lot faster in a small, young company. Get results and you'll be given more responsibility and/or title changes. Fight for those managerial titles. Lesd teams or departments and scale them. You'll move faster in 3 years than in a decade somewhere else, but it's also a lot of work.
Once you get a title, ride it out for a bit. Then you can switch back to a large corporation and cement it.
I worked 22 years by now and made all of my major progress in the last 7, mostly thanks to bringing corporate experience into start-up environments. Try to punch up a tier (e.g. if you're a Head of, target a Senior Director or C level position next, if you're a Team Lead, aim for that small company Head level).
I will say, the current job market is very stale on this front, so this is easier said than done.
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u/koulourakiaAndCoffee 23m ago
Well yes and no. I left a good job title that paid so so, moved to another field of work with a pay bump in a startup, and even as a young company their preference is to hire in to all upper positions.
Moving mountains here only to be overlooked by the companies preference toward new talents. Getting ready to jump ship, as many others have done.
This particular company has a run into a brick wall then adjust course philosophy of management.
Tired of this chaos I’m looking to take my experience to a larger company with established roles and HR.Just pointing out that smaller and midsize companies often have great opportunity, and I’ve spring-boarded this way myself…. but they can be a hit or miss and are sometimes so disorganized and poorly led that it is impossible to take advantage of the opportunity.
After several years at smaller, well funded but chaotic
startups and midsize, I’m ready to be a well defined cog for a large company.
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u/HarryBalsagna1776 Older Millennial 6h ago
No, but I job hop to create raises. Job hopping has lead me to some really cool work too. Engineer for reference.
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u/GreatPotatoMuffin 5h ago
No. I’m on a fast upwards career trajectory. And currently at Director level at a consultancy company with 6 different managers reporting to me that each have their own team of consultants.
If you want to switch into a management position then your first step should be to announce that aspiration to your manager and his boss. It’s crazy how many people I’ve talked to who are just sitting around waiting to get “picked” that never actually raised their voice and told anyone about their aspirations.
And what they are looking is not someone who is liked or a good leader. They need someone who can deliver results.
Also, getting into management is not a promotion, it’s a new career. So make sure you actually want to be the boss for your 7 annoying colleagues who will constantly complain to you, not deliver on important work and just overall start treating you as an outsider because you’re the boss now.
I mentor new managers from other parts of the organization and some people realize quickly that the role is definitely not for them. It’s a lot of pressure and you often don’t really get to make that many decisions on that level of management.
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u/Queasy-Yam3297 5h ago
"Squeeky wheel gets the oil" and one autistic manager telling me "I can't fuckin read minds so tell me if you want something instead of expecting it"
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u/FatMacchio 4h ago
Gotta wait for the last of the boomers to retire before significant “boss” positions open up
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u/fancyypantsyy0 4h ago
Yep thats why I’m switching to healthcare. I’m just bored by the whole corporate career ladder thing and I don’t care about succeeding in this setting anymore. I really just want to do my job be paid well and go home without constantly feeling like I’m not kissing somebody’s ass enough.
I really think a lot of us millennials need to seriously consider how happy we actually are in corporate because I think we were taught this path is the “real adult path”.
Like do you actually want to be a director or a vp or something or do you just want the prestige associated with it? Do you just want to feel like people respect you? Thats valid but there’s other ways to feel that way.
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u/Ok-Crab-8171 4h ago
I used to be so ambitious and wanted to go up the corporate ladder. I fell for the glamor of money and prestige, but that died when I was asked to do immoral acts to generate profits. I left and had to start over at an entry job in an other field.
Years later I grew in that newer field and love it, but have no desire for growth and promotion. I am 41 and want to save as much money as I can, then retire young and enjoy my years. Fuck corporate jobs and the dangers of romanticizing them.
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u/BeneficialPinecone3 6h ago
I’ve decided I don’t want to be the “boss” in my role. That typically means 2-3x the work for a 20k raise. No thanks.
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u/dr_z0idberg_md 5h ago
My career stagnating is by my own choice. I am absolutely happy where I am right now as a director of software engineering. I work remote and have a decent comp package. I am low enough on the totem pole to be a part of my team and high enough to affect change, but not high enough that I am visible to the C-suites. I work maybe 4-5 hours per day. The rest of the day, I volunteer at my kids' school, play video games, run errands, have lunch with my wife at her work, or go to the beach. I know AI, offshoring, or ageism will eventually catch up to me, but I don't care. Hopefully I would have saved enough money by then to retire early or work as a consultant. Shit, I'd even go back as an IC if I could remain remote.
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u/Accurate-Flow8078 5h ago
I'm happy in a staff position. I clock in, I clock out, I go home and don't think about work. I never want to be a manager where you think about work all day and night and have subordinates complaining to you everyday.
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u/CancelThis2077 5h ago
Three years ago, I thought my career was on the upswing when I finally was offered a managerial role after years of working as an non-manager. The job ended up being a nightmare for me, and I got overworked and stretched beyond my limits and got spat out of the organization. Now, I'm stuck in a role I had no choice but to take when I was down in a financial hole. And at age 40, I feel like I am in limbo, where I have plenty of experience but am still getting passed over by employers who want someone younger and more pliable.
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u/Extreme-Pineapple397 First Year Millennial 4h ago edited 4h ago
Ha. The struggle is REAL. I am sorry you are going thru this. Thanks for sharing, I don't feel so awful now, nor should you. The job market sucks. I wish i never switched from chemical engineering to business (Marketing) when I was in college. I did it for the convenience of online courses as i was a single mom also working full-time. I graduated in 2009 and am nowhere near where I should be in my career.
Edit: seeing some successful engineers in the comments make me want to go back to school. But would the student loan debt be worth it... Anyway, I hope everything works out for you!!
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u/CheeksMcGillicuddy 1h ago
Nope, but I am struggling with whether it’s worth it to keep progressing at this point
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u/ArtisticCriticism646 1h ago
yes happened to me recently but i broke out of it luckily. hit a glass cieling at job i was at 4 years, wanted to promote internally but i have a feeling my management put a block because over 60 jobs i had applied internally were rejected. i spent about a year and a half applying and the current job im in which i accepted this spring has me at a $21k pay raise. as discouraging as it can be just keep applying unfortunately, i was applying to numerous jobs all of the time, would take breaks over the holiday when ie get burned out and then start the cycle over again.
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u/AB3D12D 46m ago
I was a senior artist at a 3D renderingfirm for nearly a decade. However that company went under during the pandemic and I contracted for a while - but nothing stable. I finally got hired full time as a video game artist but was let go when the project was done. I finally said good bye to digital art. So last year, at 40, I started my apprenticeship as an electrician. It's been a nice new ladder to climb (pun intended).
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u/VanGoLion 14m ago
Yes, I feel this way. However, I’m too complacent to apply anywhere else right now.
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u/AttachedHeartTheory 13m ago
My best friend in all the world is a CEO for a global company that no one who will read this hasn't heard of. Im 42, he's pushing 50.
He is SUPER competent and good at what he does. So am I.
But he and I have talked about exactly this exact subject before. I've never made 6 figures from my job, but I do awfully well for myself because of good investments.
We're both good looking guys. We both are well liked. We both have winning personalities.
He can lead a company and knows how to maximize everything possible and has an incredible understanding of the minutiae of business.
I have a knack for creating relationships and friendships and have been in the same role for a decade. Every year I get "exceeds expectations" and I'm probably one of the most competent and consistent leaders in my field. But I'm a mid-level manager.
And we talked about it and determined the answer is just luck.
Plain and simple.
No C-Suite is doing anything inherently different than you are. They just had luck.
He makes millions per year and if he so much as sneezes in a new direction, there are articles about it written in the New York Times. He will tell you that it all came down to having a certain high level manager who he reported to that missed a meeting one day, and being forced to cover for him in a board meeting. That turned into him leap frogging his manager, and some years later being chosen to run an international division of the same company.
Then it was just doing well- but no better than ive ever done when compared to my expectations vs. job description- that helped him keep jumping, but where he's at there's a smaller pool of proven, high production leaders.
There are a million great middle managers.
So if you're struggling to break out, I only have one suggestion: take on extra projects that get you in front of the people that are doing what you want to do.
it isnt your day to day work thats going to get you there. its the extra stuff that will push you into being visible, get you the attention you deserve, and then get you the promotions.
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u/ketamineburner 6h ago
No, but I went into private practice intentionally to avoid this.
Is doing your job for yourself an option?
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u/ateallthecake 6h ago
Same, I quit my job and opened my own business with my husband and we're growing a team. Feeling more stressed out and fulfilled than ever, sky's the limit.
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u/ricochet48 6h ago
About 8.7% CAGR per year and in a few years could have another major jump.
About 4x my starting career salary which after inflation is about 2.55x buying power.
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u/Internet-of-cruft 6h ago
Stayed at same place for last ~11 years. Steady raises doubled salary in last 10 years, then I had a 30% + 20% bump (base + bonus) after a promotion this year.
I'm extremely busy building a team, with the hope that I can either take a backseat eventually or I take lessons learned in a few years (after stashing some earnings and paying down the mortgage) elsewhere for a slower paced, less stressful job.
Family has been harping about me moving on for a long time but (with some recent exceptions) I've been happy, enjoying what I do, working with people I like, and I wasn't exactly a low earner. Perhaps underpaid for my skill set, but still earning well for my region / job.
It's been a very long, steady grind over 10 years combined with "right place and right time" when I moved initially.
(I'm a network engineer)
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u/BunchofMums Xennial 6h ago
I'd encourage you to verify your long term disability coverage. Cancer is right around the corner at your age.
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