How to achieve my ambitions?

October 21, 2012 2:01 PM

I feel stuck in an unfulfilling job which I am not progressing in. Leading to unhappiness and questioning my overall state of mind. What should I do? Warning: a lot of detail inside.

I graduate with the ultimate aim of becoming a qualified accountant. Shortly after I got a job in a small charity( where I have been for the past two and a half years). This is in finance.

I slowly learned all the day to day operations. On the course of my employment I was promised high level tasks. This has been addressed in reviews on numerous occasions. The feedback gained from my line manager has been good. He has often said he would like me to progress and advance. In my review one objective set was to spend more time with me to show me higher level duties. This has never materialised, I feel my manager has deliberately not showed me these tasks due to his own insecurities and it is his manager putting pressure on him to give me more task. This is evident due to comments such as "knowledge is power" and by his attitude in general.

I really just want to progress to get on with higher level tasks to fulfil my ambition. This is escalating to make me feel unhappy and Grumpy at work.

Please could you offer any suggestions on how to fulfil my goals?

Addition info: work are also paying me to go to college at weekend to complete professional accounting exams.

Thanks

posted by happiness01 to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Best answer: 2.5 years of unfulfilled promises at a small non-profit: I think it's time for you to search for new employment. It's often hard to make progress within a smaller organization, as they need you to do the tasks they originally hired you for and there's often no clear promotion/advancement path. Add in some power play from your manager and I think it's unlikely you will get what you want from this particular job.

Are you a member (student member) of any accounting professional organizations? It might be helpful for you to find a mentor, or to do what they call in the States "informational interviews", to determine what type of role/organization would be the best next step for you.

You don't have to stay in this job. You have skills, you want more skills, find a company or nonprofit who will value you. Good luck!!
posted by stowaway at 2:12 PM on October 21, 2012 [7 favorites]

Outside of reviews, have you actually followed up and asked "How can I start working with you on [those higher lever duties we talked about]?" One of my bosses had a "if you want it, you'll come to me with it" policy. If you didn't bring it up, you evidently weren't ready for it/didn't want it. (I'm not endorsing this idea, but just mentioning it.)

Stowaway makes good points, too.
posted by wintersweet at 3:34 PM on October 21, 2012

wintersweet makes some good points - I have also had at least 2 bosses who expected me to come to them to receive additional training/responsibilities, even after we had talked about it. Some persistence on your part might pay off here - keep asking about the higher-level tasks, and do it in a way that takes some of the burden off your manager. For example, you could ask to put a meeting on his calendar to train you on xyz function. Then you schedule the meeting and come prepared to learn.

You can always start looking around to see what else is out there in terms of jobs. You do note that your employer is paying for you to go to college. If this is something you would not be able to do on your own, keep in mind that it is pretty valuable. As long as it doesn't make you beholden to them for a long time after, it may be worth hanging around until you finish your exams.

It's even possible that they want to to complete the exams before bringing you in to higher level tasks.
posted by jeoc at 4:45 PM on October 21, 2012