Ask Christa! What's My Next Career Step? (S5E50)

Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome to Ask Christa! the place where you can ask questions about how to work through business challenges and workplace issues. I'm Christa Dhimo and today’s listener question marks a BIG MILESTONE for my show: EPISODE 50!! 

Since I kicked off six months ago, I’ve answered 49 specific questions, although it’s been well over 100 questions in total, since there have been a few instances where I created small “Series” and answered multiple questions across general topics like strategy, business basics, and Doing the Work. 

This is our second episode in Season 5 where we’re focused on Career Growth, and today’s listener question is another consolidation of several questions I’ve received that are similar.

Listener Question

Here’s the listener question: “I’m early in my career. I started in a call center helping customers as a call center representative, and I love doing that kind of work. I worked in a restaurant and also in a hotel during college, and I’ve always loved the service industries. I’m starting to outgrow my work here, and I’m not sure what my next career step is. I’ve asked my supervisor, and she said the next logical step might be for me to be a call center supervisor like her, but she didn’t say anything else. Now I’m not sure if I can go back to her and ask again. If that’s my next career step, I don’t know what I should be training myself for, whether I should be applying at my company or other companies, and whether that’s actually my next career step. I’m on LinkedIn, but I haven’t really used it. My aunts and uncles have encouraged me to network over LinkedIn, but will that really make a difference? What’s my next career step?”

When Your Supervisor Supervises (but not much else…)

I want to start by giving kudos to our listener for a couple of things: First: for being self-aware and paying attention to—and then doing the work of—jobs that they love, in this case: in the service industries. Second: for recognizing that they’re outgrowing their work at the call center, and third: for going to their supervisor and stating their interest in taking the next career step within a call center.

And I guess I could say fourth: for submitting a question to Ask Christa!

Being self-aware and knowing what you love are two of THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of developing a career. It might sound easy—to find what you love to do, but if you’ve found what you love to do and you are doing it, don’t take that for granted. It’s not the foregone conclusion you may think it is—at least, not for everyone. For many people, it takes years to find what they love to do…. And it’s more through a process of elimination that they find it, not because it’s in front of them as part of their job.

Then, of course, how our listener clearly checks in on themselves to determine where they are in the evolution of their current development and their current role. It’s also not easy to know if you’ve started to outgrow a role. Sometimes people get comfortable once they’ve mastered a role. They become complacent; they’ve amassed a lot of know-how, and they prefer an identity as being deeply entrenched in their role and their organization. And there’s nothing wrong with that so long as you continue to add value and evolve your role alongside the needs of your customers, internal or external. 

Let’s talk a bit about our listener’s supervisor, though. Our listener made the right choice to ask their supervisor about what the next career step might be. Unfortunately, the discussion ended with the supervisor’s answer, which was essentially, “Probably my job.”

Now, that doesn’t mean our listener will LITERALLY take their supervisor’s job, but there’s a certain truth everyone tends to agree with when it comes to supervisors: sometimes they just… supervise. They are there to assure the shifts run smoothly, that people take breaks they should take, that the logistics and operations—in this case, of a call center, which can be very complex from a team perspective as well as a compliance perspective depending on the center—are as predictable as possible, and when there’s a point of escalation, the supervisor is the first-line of escalation, equipped to make over-ride decisions and short-circuit a process if that’s in the best interest of the customer and the organization.

But not all supervisors are alike, AND… not all supervisors are trained to be effective managers. In many instances, a shift supervisor isn’t even the manager—they are there to supervise the employees for a specific shift, and a more formal manager oversees the employees from an employment perspective. This might include hiring, performance management, employee development and promotion, and layoffs or firings with cause.

Whether you have a first-line supervisor or a more formal manager separate from a shift supervisor, you should be able to go to them to ask about your next career step. It just doesn’t always mean you’ll get an answer you can act on.

Your Supervisors Isn’t Your Only Career Resource

If you’re asking someone for input about your next career step, it’s perfectly acceptable to expect they’ll provide some directional and actionable guidance. In this case, and to recap, our listener asked about what their next career step may be now that they feel they are outgrowing their call center rep role. They asked their supervisor and received a short answer that the next career step is probably being a supervisor, and that was it.

Our listener now feels uncomfortable asking their supervisor for more information, and while I sympathize with that position—I’m not sure I’d go back expecting more, either—your supervisor isn’t your only career resource.

For starters, Google your question. I did that. I Googled the phrase: “what's my next career step after being a call center representative?” I’ll put the link in the show notes, and indeed the usual career step is to become a supervisor, but there are other role opportunities available, too.

For example, think about the key skills of being an effective call center representative: EXCELLENT communication skills, especially in listening, comprehending, and responding. Other skills and traits? Patience, emotional regulation—which is a fancy phrase about how you keep your emotions in check… a genuine interest in helping resolve problems, a calmness or unflappable nature. These are all skills that are required to be savvy with customers—FOR SURE. 

But they’re also skills that are often associated with communications, which can run the gamut of corporate communications to employee communications to technical writing and customer support training. There are roles in sales and marketing that need these skills, too.

So when you feel stalled out from a non-actionable answer, as our listener received from their supervisor—seek other resources to learn about the various opportunities available to you as a next career step. Think of some of the skills that you have that will be involved in that next career step.

Morphing and Changing Your Career Could Be Your Next Step…

As you contemplate the various resources available to learn about potential career steps, also consider the bigger and broader picture of your career. If you love being in a service industry, then plot out your next step in a service industry and seek out a role that leverages and utilizes your various skills while offering you something very different. Maybe you go back into hospitality, or perhaps you seek a role in higher education where you’re providing service to students and their families, or maybe a role in health care where you’re providing a service to patients in need. 

If you’re interested in remaining in a call center environment, then you can absolutely find resources that will guide you toward interesting and appropriate next career steps. But if you’re interested in remaining in a SERVICE industry, that broadens your options across A LOT of other industries.

And yes—use your network, such as family members and friends, to seek out those who might offer guidance OR use a platform like LinkedIn. There are a lot of professionals who are interested in talking to others about their career path and what potential next steps there could be. Just remember to extend courtesies like a polite, personal note explaining why you’re reaching out, what sparked your interest in their profile, and what you’re hoping to get out of a 20 to 30 minute call, recognizing how pressed everyone is for time these days. And of course, try to start with those already in your network, since that will help YOU with your networking effort.

Additional Resources

For your resources, located in the show notes, I’ve included the Google Search results from searching the phrase, “what's my next career step after being a call center representative.”

Next up: a quick article from Ann Hiatt, published in Harvard Business Review in December 2021 called, “How to figure out what you want next in your career.” She focuses on purpose, people, pace. It was during the pandemic and makes a few dated references, but the essence of the article is timeless, and will offer helpful clarity.

Last: an article from the Indeed Editorial Team called, “How to decide your next career move in 5 steps (with tips),” and it’s the “with tips” that I thought would be the most helpful. It’s a super quick read, but offers thoughtful ways to think about your next career move. At the end of the article you’ll see a link to a step-by-step guide for how to switch careers that’s pretty good, too.

Wrap Up & Submitting Your Questions

And there it is: episode FIFTY right here in Season FIVE, focused on Career Growth! 

You can submit YOUR question on my show’s site, AskChrista.com, that’s Christa with a C-H, where you will see all my episodes listed based on category and season. While your there—sign up for my More Answers… newsletter, where you will receive additional content on Sunday nights to set you up for the work week.

As always—thank you for your support. And remember, if you have a business challenge or a workplace issue—Ask Christa!