Whether you have been working really hard for that promotion that never seems to come or you realise the passion you once had for your job is just gone, a lot of people experience feelings of disillusionment within their career at some stage.

“A career rut is usually something that creeps up on you,” Fionnuala explains. “You might find yourself dreading going to work on a Sunday night or Monday morning and then, suddenly, you begin to realise you hate the job that you’re in.”

Fionnuala says it is very important at that stage to take a step back to analyse how you feel and try to separate the facts of the situation from your emotions.

Career ruts are usually surrounded by very negative feelings where people are quite hard on themselves. Someone who is too old to get a promotion is actually full of experience and someone who is too young has lots of enthusiasm, according to Fionnuala.

“Sometimes we can’t see the trees from the wood, and at that moment we need to analyse what the problem is. Is your job not challenging? Are there no promotions in the company? A lot of people feel they are in a career rut because of boredom, their job is too stressful or they have lost all interest in their work,” she explains.

Fionnuala urges people to talk to someone, whether it be a close friend who is happy within their job, a mentor who is working in your dream company or even a career coach.

Once you do this and realise that you do need to change something about your job, there are three simple options that Fionnuala advises you to take:

1. Try a lateral move. This is where you move into a similar job which has the same salary and roles but the company or department is different.

2. Aim for a promotion. Try take on more responsibility within your job so you can work your way up the ladder.

3. Take the leap and go for a complete career change.

A career change is certainly no easy decision, but Fionnuala believes there is no point in staying in a job that makes you miserable.

“Many people look at the position they are in at the moment and say they cannot go back to college or start a job where they must begin on a low salary because they have a family to look after or a mortgage to pay. There is always something that you can do though and again you have to take it in steps,” Fionnuala explains.

“If you think of the stage you are at in your life and how long there is left until retirement age, you will spend a lot more years of your life unhappy, when you could have taken a different direction,” she adds.

Fionnuala oversees the Cork Branch of Clearview Coaching which has just opened this October and serves the Munster area.

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Special focus: agri careers