[00:01.8]
Hello, and welcome along to another episode of Walk into Your Next Grade. This is a podcast for thoughtful Higher Education professionals who are exploring career progression. I'm Fiona Bicket, your resident professional development coach, and I'm here week in, week out, reminding you that you don't have to become someone else in order to create the kind of career success that you want.
[00:27.8]
This is a walking podcast, so I have actually just ducked into a little shelter. I'm on my allotment at the moment because it's pouring down rain. Hopefully when you listen to this, you've got slightly nicer conditions, so grab your headphones and your keys, shove your feet into some comfy shoes and come out for a walk with me as we explore the moves that matter the most as you progress in your career.
[00:56.5]
Alright, so this episode is a bit counterintuitive given the point of the podcast, but I received a question from somebody on LinkedIn who said, Fiona, love the content, love the episode so far on the podcast, but what about if you don't want to progress and you keep getting pressured?
[01:15.3]
And I thought, oh, that's an interesting question, so let's explore it. What if you don't want to progress? So I talked about the eight sort of typical career moves in a previous episode. So we'll give a quick whistle stop through those again.
[01:31.7]
So they are move sideways to escape a bad situation. Move sideways to diversify your experience and skills. Progress upwards internally. Progress upwards by leaving and getting a job elsewhere.
[01:47.8]
Leave the sector entirely and retrain, do something else, or leave the sector and start your own thing. And then the two that are really relevant for this conversation are stay where you are. And the typical reasons for stay where you are that I think are really healthy, good reasons to stay are number one, because you're consolidating your skills and your experience, you're probably relatively new into the role and you feel like you've still got a lot to learn.
[02:20.0]
Really great reason to stay in your role. Things are feeling, you know, sort of like you're learning and progressing within the role. Don't need to jump ship too quickly. The second option is that you are, staying because for some reason you're kind of like just happy living life outside of work and work is just a feature of your larger lifestyle.
[02:47.0]
So, for example, my favourite appraisal that I ever did with a team member was this lovely woman called Julie. She came into the meeting room where we were having her appraisal, she sat down and she went, "Well, Fiona, I was going to ask you for more money and then I realised you would ask me for more work, and I'm really just not up for that.
[03:05.3]
So how about I carry on doing my job and you carry on paying me and we'll both be happy?" And it was so good because we were both happy. Like, she was somebody. She worked part time, she was like the office manager. She had a sort of youngish child at home and, you know, she just wanted to have a job where she could rock up and do a good job, leave at the end of the day with a sense of satisfaction, but not be pushing super hard to get anywhere.
[03:35.8]
And actually, her real priority was being there for her son, being able to work flexibly so she could go and pick him up whenever needed and, you know, go to his school performances and football matches, you know, all of that stuff, and actually work for her was not her top priority and so she was really happy and I was really happy because she was a really solid member of the team.
[03:58.0]
I could rely on her to show up when she was meant to be at work, do a really good, solid job. And that was, that was kind of it, you know, it was ideal. And so I think when it comes to this person's question, they sent me on LinkedIn about, well, what do you do if you're getting pressured for progression?
[04:18.6]
I guess my question back to that person and anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation is to consider what your personal motivations are. So is it that you're somebody who's staying in role because you're genuinely having a nice time, you're still learning, having a, you know, sort of feel like you're getting what you want from the role?
[04:41.1]
Is it that you're somebody who's very established in the role, not necessarily learning loads from it, but actually just happy? You're just happy, having a nice life. You know, either of those are really good reasons to stay exactly as you are.
[04:56.4]
And in either of those cases, I also think it's really legit to push back to whoever it is that's pressurising you and saying, no, thanks, I'm happy exactly as I am. If, however, you're somebody who does have a secret desire for more, but who is feeling quite scared of progression, then I guess that's a different story, isn't it, and maybe your discomfort with the pressure that you're receiving from people around you is that you've got this inner tension that you're experiencing between parts of you who feel safe and comfortable with what is familiar, and the part of you that is secretly ambitious and maybe does want to explore what more looks like, but feels really scared and afraid that if you put yourself out there you might make a mistake, or it might be a kind of throwing pan into the fire situation, or just that you haven't interviewed for years and years and you don't know, you don't feel comfortable doing that anymore.
[05:59.6]
So just be wary of the familiarity trap keeping you stuck where you are. I don't think there's much else I want to say about that, really, apart from if you are having that sense of, kind of worry or that, you know, you identify with that tension that I've just described.
[06:23.6]
If that is you, I really encourage you to go gently with yourself and to maybe do some journaling or find somebody that you trust to talk this through with who can help you to explore if you did secretly want to do more, what might that look like?
[06:42.9]
And it doesn't always have to be something that's directly related to what you're currently doing. And if you did want to stay where you are because it's more familiar, what might that turn into in your longer term future?
[07:00.5]
You know, are you somebody who is going to be okay with that and get to the end of your career and not have any regrets about having not pushed yourself? If that is the case and you're like, yeah, I'd actually be delighted with that. You know, like, look back on life and feel like I've had a nice life and everything's been fine, brilliant.
[07:20.8]
Go for it, stay where you are. If you're somebody who comes down on the side of actually, I think I would probably regret it. I think that's a really good signal to just quietly consider exploring what other options might be out there for you.
[07:39.8]
I recently worked with a client who we did some interview preparation coaching because she was genuinely really happy in her role. She had said to her line manager at her appraisal, I definitely am not looking to leave.
[07:58.9]
I'm really happy where I am. I like the people that I'm working with. I love this institution. The only possibility for me moving is if the role directly above me came available. And she had absolutely no expectation that it would come available, because she knew the post holder who was in that role.
[08:20.4]
She didn't think they were going anywhere anytime soon. And so she kind of just put it out there as something that you say, because at appraisal, that she had that same feeling that the person who sent that question had of, I guess I meant to say something developmental. And then guess what happened?
[08:36.7]
That person left, and the job came available. And then she did actually go for it. She got the job, and just got that promotion. Not because she's somebody who's super ambitious and was striving for more or, you know, she wasn't looking to kind of shake up her life and career or anything, but just that it is the practical next step and makes sense in her career, in her environment, in her, you know, kind of expansion of what she's doing so that she can carry on doing stuff that interests her and not get too bored in her job.
[09:12.2]
So progression doesn't always need to be really aggressive. I guess that's, kind of what I'm saying and sometimes when you verbalise what it is that you do want, "Actually I really want to stay here in this organisation. I don't want to leave. I don't want to even leave the department." Sometimes things just have a way of working out so that the next opportunity presents itself.
[09:35.1]
So in that case I would just encourage you, if that's how you're feeling, to just take the pressure off. Take the pressure off. It's totally okay to be really happy where you are and then take an opportunity if it happens to arise and it happens to fit in with who you are, where you are at your career stage and what it is that you want and how your work fits into your life.
[09:59.6]
So there you go. This has been a bit of a rambling, permission giving episode to make your career progression or lack of progression to suit you. It's your career. This is mine. I keep coming back to this point.
[10:14.9]
It is your career, not your manager's career, not HR's career, not your institution's career, or even your partner or family members' career. It's your career. You get to choose. If you want to progress, you can explore what that might look like for you, what opportunities there are.
[10:32.7]
And if you don't want to progress, that's also fine, because it's your career and you get to own that decision. And when you make peace with that, you will find that the rebuttal or, you know, your kind of your response to people's pressure comes much more steady and solid because there's a bit of a kind of "well, fuck it!" kind of approach.
[11:00.4]
You know, you don't need to please anybody else when it comes to your career. It's your career. You get to deal with it, what you want, so I hope that helps. If you have any questions that you'd like me to address in future episodes, please do send them to me. Either send a message on LinkedIn or send me an email.
[11:19.9]
I do my best work, I think, when I'm in response to people's questions or, You know, kind of bouncing off other people's ideas. So send me your questions. I'd love to respond to them. And if you hear anything in any episodes that you think, oh, that was really great, or, oh, I'm not sure I agree with that, let me know that as well.
[11:41.1]
I'd love to have that discussion with you. All right, take good care, and I will speak to you very soon. Bye.
