Without sharing too much, I’ve recently realized that where I am is probably not the best place in terms of career growth. I can show my contributions on my resume, but due to circumstances outside of my control, I can’t show them in terms of title promotions.
When you realize you’re in a space or place that isn’t invested in your growth, what is your strategy for getting back on track or rebooting your career?
(Now I’m looking for the power button for me. Maybe I need to try and turn it off, then on again?)
Personally I went contracting! That was the biggest reboot for me and my career, it meant I could choose the work and the career progression.
The only proviso is that the contracting market is pretty rubbish at the moment so it’s much more of a leap of faith now than it has been before. If you have bills to pay then it can be quite challenging.
I don’t have all the answers, but something that has worked for me is to pick up adjacent fields. things that needs testing skills but is about testing something else. For me it has been security, compliance and resilience - for others it has been specific tooling. There is only one to do the first step.. you. and only one to select the path. you.
Where do you want to go - can you plan a route to that destination?
I would start by creating a clear vision of where I want to be, why, and what things would be like for me if I didn’t make it there. That should give me a solid direction and motivation. It also helps to figure out whether it’s your career spot that’s giving you negative feelings, or where you work… I would also think about how far away I am from where I want to be; what the differences and similarities are. That helps me understand how big the jump is, and how much of a shift it would be. Then I would map out multiple routes to my destination, including ideas of how I would get to each milestone, and what other paths I could take along the way.
I like to plan just enough so that I know what to focus on next, but not so much that I couldn’t pivot if I wanted to. Because things change, and realities hit, and new things get discovered. It’s a journey. And with that in mind, I also like to think about where the “where I want to be” would lead next; not that it leads to some dead end.
I’ve been out of work since May 2025. I’m a Manual Tester in my late 50s and things are looking desperate. I’ve always wanted to move into automation, but workloads have dictated otherwise. Retraining is tricky as I have no income and little in the way of savings.
I’m really keen to hear of how others have achieved this.
Well right now I’m in a very good place where I’m in a company where I’m energised to help other people grow. For all the company’s successes and failures, where the team has grown and shrunk, the circumstances keep me motivated to look after people in the good times and the bad. I think a lot of that is where I am in my career. I’ve gone through the ambitious career drive for promotion stage years ago, I’m now comfortable I’m doing my best work and have my best impact.
So I’ll go back to when that wasn’t the case in my previous company. First and foremost, I talked with trusted colleagues about how I was feeling about my growth. Is how I’m feeling personal to me or do others feel the same?
Then I look at myself and ask, is there anything I can control about my growth? Do I have the power to add some experience to myself in work or outside work that will give me the satisfaction that I’m growing and adding value to myself?
I then talked to ex-colleagues that I trusted and worked well, asked how they were going and learned where they were going in their careers as inspiration. All these conversations, helped me make decisions about my next steps.
So with those conversations I realised the staff turnover was increasing, my colleagues felt unappreciated. I realised talking to my ex colleagues I was using old technology that they’d moved on from. So I got ahead in my work where I could, used the time to become a bit more up to date and ready for a move. Adapted my CV to show what I’d learn, focused my CV on achievements, less about skills and got this job.
On the lack of title promotions, leadership is everywhere. It doesn’t just have to show in a promotion. I’m sure there a loads of examples where your leadership skills are visible, where you’ve mentored someone, lead a project or piece of work etc. inside and outside of work. Make it prominent.