What’s up, y’all. I’m not sure why, but I’ve been on a tear recently in updating this blog…If I’m remembering correctly, this is my third reader email response in the past week and I can’t remember the last time I did that. Granted, the emails have needed shorter responses lately, which has made it easier for me to get replies out. It’s kinda cool to get back to people before they have a chance to forget that they’d emailed me in the first place

Now on to the actual entry…the email below is from a reader who has been at a global consulting firm for a little while and he’s feeling like they hit him with the okey-doke when they told him what he’d be doing. Hold up…i bet some of you are wondering “Uhhhh, what is an ‘okey-doke’?” right about now…basically, I’m saying that the guy’s employer led him to believe he’d be doing one thing and he’s been doing another since he started there. I’m sure we all can understand his frustration, so I hope he finds my words to be useful.

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JL wrote:

“Hi Marquis,

I’ve been at a global consulting firm for about 8 months and I haven’t been too happy with my roles. I was told I would take on management consulting positions when I joined, but these roles are relatively scarce; instead, I’ve been doing mostly Project Management and some systems integration related work, which has been honestly too easy. I don’t feel like I’m progressing in my career.

What kind of options do I have in terms of leaving my firm? I was thinking about smaller boutique firms but I’m not sure where to start looking.

I thought about a few options:

1) try to realign myself with a different group within my firm

2) stick it out for a few years and head to business school

3) switch firms, possibly try to wait until the 1 year mark? (or does this matter?)

For reference, I graduated from a T25 undergrad school with a mediocre gpa (above 3.0 though).

I’ve thought about using a recruiter but I’m not sure where to even begin down this path. Any suggestions?”

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My response:

JL,

Thanks for thinking of me as a resource for the issue with your employment. I have been in a similar situation where the advance description for your position doesn’t match what you actually end up doing when you start the job. And, having been in your shoes, I understand how much it sucks. Part of the reason I went to business school was to improve my career options just in case I ever were to end up in that type of scenario again. But, your email wasn’t about busienss school because you’re dealing with the job stuff now, so let me get to what you’ve asked about…

So, let’s take a look at each of the options that you laid out to gauge the positives and negatives of each:

1. “try to realign myself with a different group within my firm ” –> This option has huge upside potential because it could give you the sort of experiences you desire without having to leave your current company. And, if you do it right, it could be a great way to expand your network within your company while getting a chance at the kind of work you really want to do. If you attempt this, you’d have to be ready for possible negative feedback or messaging from your current group that may have some impact on your chances. As you think about realigning yourself, you’ll have to be thoughtful in how you do it so that you don’t affect your reputation within your firm, current group, or desired future group.

2. “stick it out for a few years and head to business school ” –> The upside of this option is that you’d be able to build up several years worth of tenure at your current employer, which might help your business school applications when you apply. The downside is that you might go crazy from lack of interesting opportunities and it may affect your overall performance (or at least your work satisfaction for an extended period of time).

3. “switch firms, possibly try to wait until the 1 year mark? (or does this matter?) ” –> Switching firms might be a good option as long as your experiences are seen as desirable by other possible employers. A new job might give you the sort of experiences that you were seeking from your current company. On the other hand, you’d have to go through the recruiting process all over again not too long after having done so to get your current job (which is probably not preferable). As for waiting until the 1-year mark, I’m not 100% sure if it matters or not, but I always recommend that folks remain at a job for at least a whole year before leaving for another gig. Back during the dot-com era, I knew several people who jumped to as many of four jobs in a single year and the appearance of being ‘jobhoppers’ made it difficult for them to be hired when the dot-com bubble burst.

OK, so what would I do if I were in your shoes?…I’d try for option #1 first and then go for option #3, but would not even consider option #2 to be a good alternative. Please remember that this is only what I’d do here, but you’ve got to figure out which path works best for you. My rationale for this prioritization of your options is somewhat simple and I’ve been accused of oversimplifying complicated situations in the past, so I’ll walk you through my thinking on this approach.

I’d first try to transfer to a different group within your firm because it’s always better to have longer tenures at the positions in your work history than shorter ones. I’m not sure how easy this would be, but, if you can get the kind of experiences you want without having to change employers, that would always be preferable. If possible, I’d want to move into an area where the management consulting opportunities that had been promised in the begnning would be available. If this sort of transfer weren’t possible, I’d try to wait until reaching the 1-1.5 year tenure mark and then look at moving on to another firm. When looking at other job opportunities, you’ll want to frame your project management and systems integration experiences to show that you’ve developed leadership skills and technical expertise that could be applied to provide value to clients early on.

I wouldn’t recommend going with your second option of sticking it out for a few years in an unrewarding job where you’re not growing professionally. Doing this will likely leave you feeling unfulfilled with your job, which would make it difficult to provide inspired work performance day-in and day-out. And, if business school is a future goal of yours, you’ll want to demonstrate strong set of professional experiences that will feed into a good “story” for your essays. I can’t see how this would all come together well in your application if you’re writing about spending several years at a company where you were stuck in a rut. I know of far too many people who stuck around in a sub-optimal situation for too long and they’ve always wished that they’d gotten out earlier…I have a feeling that you’d feel the same way if you went with your second option.

Whichever way you choose to address this situation, I highly recommend that you pursue an MBA at some point because it’ll open up a wealth of career opportunities for you and keep you from feeling “painted into a corner” like it sounds like you are now. By the way, don’t let yourself get too down on yourself about your GPA because I also had a “mediocre GPA” (by your definition) and I didn’t turn out half bad. You’ve just got to know what you ultimately want to do and then be creative about how to get there, regardless of your undergrad performance. We can’t change the past, but there’s no reason to feel like it will be a barrier to reaching our future goals, right?

Good luck with getting your employment situation worked out. I know it’s rough to feel like you aren’t growing in your role, but, if you’re patient for a little while longer, you’ll likely have a bright light waiting for you at the other end of this drama. Take care.

-Marquis