3 Ways to Stay Engaged In Your Career
I've seen a lot of discussion lately in the comments about quiet quitting, disengaging from your career, and more — so I thought we'd discuss. What are your best tips on ways to stay engaged in your career? Why do you think it's important to stay engaged — or the flip side? Can you be engaged in your career and still have a work-life balance more heavily weighted towards life?
A question I'd be interested to hear some of the readers ponder: What are the best ways to stay engaged in your career when you're in a lockstep system like BigLaw, where everyone advances at the same rate and is paid the same?
{related: disengaging instead of quitting vs leaning out}
Why to Stay Engaged In Your Career
There are 168 hours in the week. If you have a strict 40-hour workweek and sleep for 7 hours a night, you're at work a full third of your time. I can tell you from experience: If you're not engaged, work is going to be a slog. Furthermore, it often feels like the main consequence of being disengaged is that you're unproductive, requiring more time at work.
In 2022 terms, this doesn't mean that quiet quitting or leaning out is bad — it feels like there is a huge movement that is reassessing what people want from their jobs, as well as what kind of work-life balance they prefer.
{related: how to set work-life boundaries}
Hopefully the below tips will be an on-ramp back to being engaged in your career and your job, regardless of whether you've been willfully disengaged for a while or if you find yourself disengaging by accident.
3 Ways to Stay Engaged In Your Career
Reengage with Your Career by Learning Something New
If you've been doing the same things at your job for a while now, mix things up by learning a new skill, an alternative way of doing things, or more niche facts. Some employers might keep lists of different skills (I know my old law firm did); you may also be able to look at your coworkers and classmates and see what things they've done that you just don't know about. Another option here: Find a conference or course you can take that is related to your current job.
- How to Keep Learning at Work
- The Best Online Women's Management Training
- Strategic Volunteering — Do You Do It?
Look for Complementary Career Paths
This kind of comes back to learning something new, as well as networking — there are probably a number of things you can do with your degree, job experience, skills, and interests — and it might be interesting to explore those. For example, a BigLaw lawyer might want to learn about smaller firms, in-house work, teaching, or transitioning to another job entirely for one of their legal clients. Don't forget about connecting with old classmates — it might be interesting to see where some have landed.
Some of our previous posts on this topic that might be of interest:
- Career Pivots: How to Change Your Career in a Major Way
- How to Build Your Network — And Maintain It
- Networking in Your Niche — But Outside Your Company
- Tips for Finding and Joining Professional Organizations
Tip #3 for Staying Engaged: Mentoring
If you're at the point where you want to disengage a bit, you've also probably reached the stage where you have some wisdom and can pass it along to someone else. It's as easy as asking a more junior coworker out to lunch — and note that it may even help you if you realize they have newer skills that you do not (tip #1) or if they're aware of different career paths you haven't considered.
Readers, what do you think are the best ways to stay engaged in your career? Do the answers change if you're in a lockstep system like BigLaw? What do you think are the benefits to staying engaged?
{related: when to quit your career — and how to know if your job is right for you}
Stock photo via Stencil.
