Career Growth
Career Compromise: What Are You Giving Up and What Are You Getting Back?
Podcast Audio Only:
When Career Compromise Stops Making Sense
I've made plenty of compromises in my career, and I'm guessing you have too.
Maybe you took a job that paid less because the experience was worth it, gave up some flexibility for a promotion, or stayed somewhere longer than you wanted because you needed the stability. A lot of those decisions make complete sense when we make them.
Where things get complicated is that we don't make one career decision and then stop. We make another compromise, something in our life changes, another opportunity comes along, and several years later we may be working within a career we didn't completely intend to build.
The question isn't whether you should ever compromise for your career because you probably will. You need to understand what you're compromising, what you're getting in return, and whether that trade-off still works for you.
Know What You're Compromising
You might prefer having a private office but decide that a cubicle is fine because the manager, compensation, work, and organization are all a strong fit. That's very different from accepting a schedule that doesn't work with caregiving responsibilities or repeatedly compromising on a value that's important to how you work.
I talk about deal-breaker values with my clients because most of us have a few things that are much harder to compromise without eventually creating a problem.
Your priorities can also change depending on what's happening in your life. Someone trying to pay off debt may intentionally prioritize compensation for a few years, while a parent or caregiver may need more flexibility. Later in your career, you may decide that advancement isn't nearly as important as having less responsibility and more energy for the rest of your life.
What you're willing to compromise should reflect what you need now, not automatically what mattered to you five or ten years ago.
Career Compromises Can Accumulate
One compromise usually isn't the problem, but things get more complicated when you start stacking them.
I see this happen with high achievers who are repeatedly offered opportunities because they're good at what they do. Someone recommends you for a project, you do well, and then you're recommended for another opportunity. Eventually, you've built experience and a professional reputation around a type of work you may not have intentionally chosen.
None of the individual opportunities had to be bad for you to eventually realize you don't like where they're taking you.
Life can create the same pattern. You stay because you need stability, adjust your schedule because of something happening at home, or accept responsibilities you don't particularly want because they make sense for your situation at the time.
This can be hard to recognize when nothing is obviously wrong because you've made reasonable decisions along the way and adjusted to each one as you went.
Eventually, it's worth looking at those compromises collectively and asking whether they still work for you.
Pay Attention to What the Trade-Off Is Costing You
One of the things I pay attention to when someone has been compromising for too long is how much energy they're spending managing the situation.
You may be more tired or irritable, or you may realize that you have very little energy left for things outside of work. One of the biggest indicators for me is when you're spending increasing amounts of energy tolerating your work rather than doing it.
I've experienced this myself. At one point in my career, I went from being a natural high achiever to what I would consider a pretty mediocre employee because I had changed how I worked just to function in the environment.
It took more energy for me to be average than it normally took for me to be a high achiever because I was constantly managing myself within that environment.
High achievers can be particularly susceptible to this because we tend to assume we should be able to figure out how to make a difficult situation work. Sometimes we do need to change our behavior, communicate differently, establish better boundaries, or adjust how we're approaching the situation.
But you also need to look at what's happening around you and determine whether what you're being asked to manage is reasonable.
A difficult period at work isn't automatically a sign that you need to leave. Jobs can be hard, organizations go through change, and managers or responsibilities change. You need to understand what's creating the problem before deciding how big the solution needs to be.
Three Questions to Reassess Your Career Compromises
If something in your career feels off, start with three questions:
1. What am I currently compromising on in my career?
Be specific about what you're giving up or adjusting to in order to have what your current job provides.
2. Which compromises still feel worth what I'm getting in return?
Some probably do. You don't need to eliminate every compromise from your career.
3. Which compromises are starting to cost me more than they're giving me?
This is where you need to figure out what has changed and what would improve the trade.
Sometimes you need a new job, but don't make that your automatic answer. You may need different responsibilities, better boundaries, a schedule change, more support, or something else within your current situation.
If you don't understand what's creating the problem, you can put a lot of effort into finding a new opportunity only to make the same compromise somewhere else.
Career compromise is inevitable, but the compromises you've made aren't permanent decisions. As your circumstances, priorities, and career goals change, it's worth checking whether you're still willing to make the same trade.
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