We all have the wonderful friend who gets stuck in terrible relationships. He wants to commit but attracts people who have no intention of settling down. She wants affection but attracts the unemotional. As a career coach, I see this same dynamic play out on the career front: an otherwise savvy and talented professional gets stuck in a dead-end job or makes bad career decisions. Here are five reasons even smart professionals make bad career moves:
Priorities are unclear
I coached an experienced HR professional with years of solid experience at brand-name companies who wanted to make a bigger impact on these large companies but also change her own area of focus within HR and perhaps the non-profit sector was a better match for her loftier objective. What? She had three priorities, each of which would take her in a slightly different direction. If she wants to make a bigger impact where she is, that is best accomplished in her current role, not by changing careers. If she wants to change her expertise or switch sectors, then she needs to focus on those changes and get established in her new area before expecting the same or bigger impact with her stakeholders. Of course, she can eventually accomplish all of these things (even professionals with lots of experience in one area or sector can make a switch and find an even more successful career elsewhere), but by launching against all three priorities simultaneously, she projects a confusing and scattered message that isn’t likely to convince prospective employers. Get clear on what your current career priority is.
Effort doesn’t match intention
Your objectives may be crystal clear but you still need to launch a concerted effort to reach them. I coached an experienced media professional who routinely gave his all with 14-hour days, meeting tight deadlines. For his own career management, however, week after week would go by without activity against his stated objective of finding another job. Maybe he would reach out to a handful of old contacts, but then he wouldn’t follow up. Maybe he would apply for a job and move along that one prospect, but then if it didn’t pan out, there would be no other leads in the pipeline. You can’t launch a job search one lead (or no leads!) at a time. You have to put in the effort – networking with former contacts, returning recruiter calls, pursuing multiple opportunities simultaneously so you always have active leads. Sure, sometimes lightning strikes and you have a friend who lands with seemingly zero effort – I wasn’t even looking and then a recruiter called me for a job at my dream company and a 20% raise! – but I haven’t heard those stories in a while. Put in the effort – the networking, the calls, the follow-up – to match the intention you have for your next career step.
Execution doesn’t match intention
A marketing professional whom I was coaching interviewed with a brand director I had formerly recruited for, so I knew both sides of the hiring process and could finally see what was happening with this talented marketing candidate who seemed to hit a string of bad luck. He was diligent about his outreach and follow-through and would get interviews but those jobs never materialized. When I debriefed with the brand director, I got a candid picture of why, and it’s something that’s hard for many smart professionals to accept – the marketing professional didn’t interview well. It wasn’t clear what his expertise was, how his experienced matched the job, and what results he might be able to achieve for the product in question. For experienced professionals especially, who might not have interviewed in a while or who might have had an otherwise successful career, it’s hard to believe that they’re coming across as unqualified. But when you don’t execute well in your interviewing or your negotiating for your next role internally, you won’t get what you want – you won’t get the job outright or you’ll get a lesser role than you intended. Don’t assume that your interviewing, negotiating, or other career management skills are competitive. Role play with a coach or a mentor and know for sure that you can execute competitively.
Blind spots are not addressed
I actually hinted at this execution problem with a friend that I didn’t coach but recommended for coaching with someone else (sometimes you don’t want to share tough coaching feedback with friends!). He was an experienced organizational design consultant who seemed to hit a string of problem clients. He was clearly attracting the wrong opportunities. Maybe he was positioning himself too much as a turnaround artist and was therefore attracting troubled businesses. Maybe he was overemphasizing his service-oriented nature and attracting high maintenance personalities. It was hard to say because he only complained to me about the problematic end-results, and I couldn’t see his role in creating the problem. So I suggested that he do a mock interview with an experienced interviewer who didn’t otherwise know him and could identify what he was obviously missing. He agreed that was a good idea, never followed through with the session, accepted yet another problem client and is again looking for his next situation. Blind spots are called that because you cannot see them on your own. If you knew all the mistakes you were making, you would fix them! Get a trusted outsider to help you recognize and correct your blind spots. Otherwise, you are doomed to repeat the same mistakes – whether bad technique or bad choices – repeatedly.
Inevitable trade-offs are not addressed
Some smart professionals are able to make move after move but are never happy. It could be a priority problem (see reason 1). If you’re going after something you really don’t care about, then it won’t matter that you actually get it. In the case of my wonderful and talented operations client, good moves became bad moves because wherever she landed the grass was greener on the other side – the management consulting role gave her variety but a lifestyle of travel and volatile hours; the general management job gave her stability but no upside and little upward mobility. All jobs come with trade-offs. Some of these are inevitable – if you take a management consulting role and lament the travel, you were not being honest with yourself about what you’re really willing to endure. Brainstorm on what trade-offs you will need to make for the next career moves you are pursuing, and make sure you address these with yourself, your family, and whomever else will be impacted. This way, an otherwise good move doesn’t become a bad move down the road.
In all of these real-life examples, the professionals had several (in some cases 10 or more) years of experience. All had advanced degrees, and all had brand-name companies and/or universities in their background. Yet, even the smartest professionals make bad career moves. If it can happen to them, it can happen to you. Which one or more of these career mistakes are you making?
A final example: a risk management professional was always the bridesmaid, never the bride in her interviews (execution problem). It didn’t help that she only had a handful of interviews. She attributed that to the specific nature of her job but she was open to considering that she wasn’t doing all she could (effort problem). So she got coaching around her interview skills and her search strategy, landed more interviews, and finally converted one to a job she’s at several years later. What’s stymieing your next career move can probably be corrected. The best careers are marathons of multiple moves, not one-time only sprints. Onward!
Caroline is the author of Jump Ship: 10 Steps To Starting A New Career. She has coached executives from American Express, Citigroup, Condé Nast, Gilt, Goldman Sachs, Google and McKinsey.
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