Is your career dead? 7 ways to resuscitate your professional path

Feeling flat, hopeless and exhausted are symptoms commonly associated with the death of a loved one. But after putting in hours of overtime, sacrificing personal connections and giving your all to a job for years, many workers report feeling a similar sense of grief for career death.

Career death can mean something different to everyone – you may be in a ‘sticky floor job’ where your role has stagnated, but for want of better options, you stay. Maybe you’ve just been made redundant, or you’ve lost the passion you had for a job you once loved. Similar to grief, you are in a state of fragility as you re-evaluate identity and purpose inside and outside your role.

With the onset of AI, a job market that feels increasingly dire and the current culture of optimisation and comparison, it can feel even more acute to figure it all out immediately. But there is no need to panic just yet – these are seven tips from Beth Hope, executive coach and founder of &hope, to give your career the kiss of life. 

Re-evaluate what the ‘death’ means

Careers don’t die out of nowhere – if you lack ambition in your current role, re-evaluate where it’s coming from. While it can be easy to assume you are in a dead-end role, it may be the way that you work that’s making you feel flat.

“It is rarely the job itself that has died. More often someone has spent years being the reliable one: saying yes, picking up the work nobody else wants and keeping things running quietly in the background,” Hope says. “That work matters, but it rarely gets noticed or rewarded, and somewhere along the way you’ve stopped being visible to the people who make decisions about your future – and often to yourself too.”

Diagnose before you resign

Are you bored in your role? Do you find it unfulfilling? Does it make you feel emotionally drained? Does it make you feel blocked? If you’ve been itching to resign from your current position but you’re unsure why, evaluate what it is about the job you dislike.

“Bored means you have outgrown the role and need more stretch. Depleted means you are running on empty, and when you are that tired everything looks grey, including work you would normally enjoy. Blocked means you are ready to move but something, or someone, is in the way. Quitting only solves one of them, and if you are depleted, you will simply carry the exhaustion into the next job,” Hope says.

Restore your capacity first

If you’re feeling drained in your current role, it’s important to regulate yourself before making any decisions.

“When you are exhausted, you genuinely struggle to imagine anything better, and every option feels risky. That is why big career decisions made from a depleted state often go wrong,” Hope says. “Before deciding anything, protect your sleep, take at least one thing off your plate and give yourself a few weeks of recovery. Once your capacity starts to come back, so does your ability to see options clearly.”

Own your achievements

It’s a very human response to spot the achievements of those around you and miss out on your own. And while you don’t need to spend ages journaling and documenting the last 10 years of your life, taking some time to list your achievements of the last few years can put things into perspective.

“Sit down and write a list of the problems you have solved over the last three years, with numbers wherever you can: money saved, revenue won, people developed, crises handled, efficiencies won,” Hope says. “It changes how you talk about yourself in your next performance review, interview or conversation with your boss, and it reminds you that your career has been very much alive all along.”

Find a sponsor, not just a mentor

Finding a sponsor can supercharge your career; while a mentor guides you, a sponsor will speak up on your behalf, influence and drop your name in front of important people.

“Women tend to be well mentored and under-sponsored, and if nobody senior is actively advocating for you, that is often the real reason a career stalls. The good news is that you can work on this deliberately,” Hope says. “Identify one or two senior people who know your work, be clear with them about what you want next, and ask directly for their support.”

Evaluate your environment

Perhaps the problem is coming from within your company. Ask yourself: are people being promoted? Is there investment going into the business? 

“If your organisation is restructuring, cutting back or has quietly stopped promoting people, no amount of personal effort will change that, and it is not a reflection of your ability,” Hope says. “If the landscape has changed, the healthiest move may be to look outward, and that is a strategic decision, not a failure.”

Take little steps, rather than grand plans

Dramatically throwing the towel in, heading out the door and writing out your own six-figure business plan may not always be the answer – sometimes all it requires is a few little steps.

“Have a coffee with someone doing work you are curious about, put your hand up for one stretch project or take a short course in something that interests you,” Hope says. “Small actions rebuild confidence and give you real information about what you want next. Momentum comes back through doing, not through thinking your way to the perfect answer.”