How to Make the Most of a Job That’s Not A Good Fit

Does a wave of dread wash over you when your alarm goes off in the morning? Do you spend Sundays sulking about the week ahead pretty much every week? The feeling of knowing you’re spending 40+ hours a week at a job that’s not quite right for you can permeate your entire life and make you miserable, whatever the reason for the bad fit.

However, sometimes it just doesn’t make sense to make a change right away. Maybe you’re sticking it out to see if things get better, or maybe you’re worried you won’t be able to find another job at all. Maybe this really feels like the best you can find with your current skills and experience. Perhaps you are actively looking, but the job search is taking a while. Or maybe you want to develop some tenure on your resume. In any case, you need a strategy – not just to survive, but to squeeze every last drop of career value from your current situation so that when you look back later, it’ll have felt somewhat worthwhile. But how do you do that without going crazy in the meantime?

Devise your exit strategy now.
Getting a jump on getting out will give you a light at the end of the tunnel to work towards. This is the time to figure out what your next move is. Is the role itself not a good fit? Do you want to have different responsibilities? If you’re not sure what your dream job is or have any idea what kind of work you’ll find most enjoyable, take personality assessments. Research what others with similar backgrounds have done. (See also: 3 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Break Out of Your Career Rut.)

Do you love the type of work you’re currently doing, but the company culture isn’t a good fit or you’re working under someone who isn’t that skilled at managing people? Figure out where you’d really love to work, and use LinkedIn to see who in your network might know someone there, and facilitate an introduction – whether or not there’s an actual job opening.

If you’re not challenged enough at work or your skills are underutilized, consider that a blessing in disguise; use that extra brainpower to dive into your job search.

Reframe your experience.
Part of any good exit strategy is reframing your current experience in a way that benefits you later. If you’re not attempting to change roles or industries dramatically, this should be relatively easy – you already know what accomplishments will make the most sense to highlight, and you might simply say you’re looking for new challenges at a different company. If you’re moving laterally or up to a new role or industry, you’ll need to do a bit more digging and reflection to draw connections between your current role and the one you want. What responsibilities do you have that are similar, or even that simply require the same characteristics and traits? If asked why you want to make a change in interviews, you’ll need to have a very clear answer that conveys your motives effectively, so be very thorough about this. Surface only the most relevant responsibilities and accomplishments for your resume. If it’s not relevant to the job you’re aiming for, don’t include it.

Build relationships with your coworkers.
Don’t worsen a less-than-ideal job situation by burning bridges. Keep your job search private and focus on strengthening the good relationships you do have at work. Go out of your way to be friendly and polite to everyone. You want your coworkers to remember you in a good light. Your current coworkers likely won’t be at that company forever, and there’s no better job reference than from someone you worked with. You never know who will succeed, or who can be a major career connection in the future.

Work on something outside of your job.
Don’t succumb to the energy-suck that comes with not enjoying your work. Having something on the side to focus your abilities on, whether it’s a hobby, side project, or volunteer work, will lift you from your funk. Active work and interests outside of your day job may even help you expand your professional network, or help you build the skills you need to make the leap to a new type of role. Moreover, employers want to see that you’re multi-faceted with broad interests. And anything that gets you excited about working on something will help you understand and uncover what kind of job will really make you happy.

3 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Break Out of Your Career Rut

If you dismiss LinkedIn as just a social media network for job-seekers, you’re missing out. LinkedIn is also a great tool if you find yourself in a career rut. Here are three major ways LinkedIn can help you get un-stuck:

1. Research

If you’re stuck in a job you hate and aren't sure how to move forward in your career, researching the career paths of others can be incredibly illuminating. Understanding how someone got from point A to point B in his career might open your eyes to different ways you can move up the ladder — or closer to a career that excites you — in your own way.

Before LinkedIn, we didn't really have a way to do this, but now it’s even easier with LinkedIn’s new Field of Study Explorer. Simply select a field of study (if you’re logged in to LinkedIn, it will automatically select the field you studied in college, but you can change this under “Explore More”), and LinkedIn will tell you what others who studied that field are now doing — even where they’re living and working. It also shows you profiles of people who studied that field, starting first with your own connections and then moving on to people you don’t yet know but with whom you have connections in common. Don’t be afraid to click around and read what people have chosen to make publicly available. Reverse-engineering the career paths of others can be helpful if you’re not even sure what the possibilities are, much less how to accomplish them. 

2. Re-brand yourself

Your LinkedIn profile tells a story about you: your history and path, your skills and interests and where you might go next. If the experience section seems like just a list of jobs, your summary is where you tie everything together. It’s your opportunity to connect the dots for your reader while articulating the best of your achievements. Your summary will go through many revisions as you gain new experiences and evolve personally and professionally. Writing about yourself forces you to consider things from someone else’s perspective and think objectively about your past. This can open your eyes to new possibilities.

Don’t discount the power of a good headline, either. Most people just default to using their current position and company, but there are better ways to make a fuller, more encompassing statement about yourself professionally. And if you’re job-seeking, don’t put that as your headline! As the first thing people read about you, it positions you as a beggar — not a chooser — and makes people worry you’ll just ask them about jobs. A better option is to describe yourself as the professional you are, whether or not you have a job. If you were recently laid off from a job as a marketing manager, you might choose to use something like “Proven marketing manager with eight years of experience.”

How you choose to portray past experiences is also important. Let’s say you’re that laid-off marketing manager and you’d like to work on more digitally focused campaigns at your next job. In that case, you might highlight the digital aspects of your prior projects by pointing them out first in the experience description.

3. Reach out

What’s the point of a network if you don’t connect with others? This is where you take your research a step further and actually connect — in real life — with people in your industry or who started from the same place. There’s definitely a right and a wrong way to do this, but most people are happy to help others; they’re flattered you want their advice, and if you end up being successful, they get value from the relationship as well. Making it easy for them to say yes is the tricky part; you don’t want to burden them with a long email or ask for too much of their time. Ramit Sethi’s blog has smart advice on how to approach people the right way for mentorship.

Thinking creatively and proactively about your trajectory is a necessary part of moving forward in your professional life, and LinkedIn can be an excellent resource and tool to help you map your career.

How to Ace the Final Interview

Making it past the first round of interviews offers a sense of satisfaction and gets you one step closer to landing the position. The final interview is your last chance to prove your qualifications and push yourself into the lead candidate position. The initial sessions give you an idea of how the company interviews and what they're looking for, but additional preparation for the final interview readies you for a more in-depth questioning session with the hiring manager.

Instructions

1. Confirm the time and location of the final interview. Don't assume it will take place in the same location as your previous interviews. Verify the format of the interview so you can prepare for the number of people sitting in and understand what will be expected of you.
2. Replay all of the previous interviews with the company in your head. Make notes about your answers so you can respond consistently. Identify questions and answers that stumped you or didn't go as well as you'd hoped so you can practice those areas before the final interview.
3. Research the company if you haven't already. Even if you researched before your first interview, review the information and read more on the company. Show you care about the company by being able to tailor your answers to the company's vision and goals.
4. Talk to any acquaintance you know who already works for the company to get a sense of what to expect from the final interview. Ask for any insight into exactly what the hiring manager is looking for.
5. Write down specific examples from your prior work experience as a review for the interview. The final interview often involves more in-depth questions and answers. Having ideas in your head to show you possess the necessary skills makes answering those questions easier.
6. Prepare yourself to show the hiring manager how well you'll fit into the company. Use the specific examples from your experience and your knowledge of the company to demonstrate that you're a qualified candidate who will excel in the position.
7. Consider your requirements and desires for salary and benefits. Questions about these topics may arise in the final interview. Preparing yourself to answer the questions helps you avoid being caught off guard and giving a salary range you later regret.
8. Bring extra copies of your resume in case there are additional people sitting in on the interview. The hiring manager should have a copy of your resume available from the previous interviews, but being prepared with extras shows you're on top of things.