Career insecurity is the feeling of powerlessness felt by employees who are in a threatening work environment but still want to maintain their current work and get paid. It’s when employees feel like they have no choice but to tolerate the abuse because they still need the income.
I’ve been there before. Some bosses are great at using their positions of power not to create welcoming environments but to create environments based on fear. They use their power against you for their own benefit because the harder you work, the more bonuses they get paid.
Bosses’ incentives are misaligned with your incentives. They have a vested interest in paying you the least amount of money possible. And having you work harder than them for less pay. Some bosses are great at taking advantage of employees to ensure they get richer on their behalf.
They know how to use your high ambition and motivation to their advantage so that they get richer based on your desires. Career insecurity is a normal feeling felt by almost everyone. Everyone feels it at some point and at different parts of their entire career.
It’s not just something someone feels at the beginning stages of their career after graduating from university. It’s something that everyone feels throughout their path to their entire career. Even the CEOs and CFOs of today felt it at some point in their lives.
It’s a completely normal feeling of the process of building your career.
What Exactly is Career Insecurity?
Career insecurity is feeling powerless felt by (usually) lower rung employees who have a desperate need to prove themselves to their coworkers, bosses, and the like. It may even be made worse if the work environment is toxic because the employees don’t have the power to walk away.
Yes, there’s always the possibility to find another job. However, that’s not as easy as everyone says it is and the new employment place could be even worse. Career insecurity can happen when you first start your career because you have to “prove” yourself to everyone else.
It can also happen as you move up your career due to a job change because the new environment is foreign. It’s happened to me many times from when I first started my career to when I first switched jobs. Anytime we are put in a new environment, it creates insecurity.
We don’t know the lay of the land yet and we don’t know what’ll trigger or cause bad things to happen in the workplace. On top of managing the social structures of the organization, you also have to manage your work well and do a good job to get noticed, receive promotions, and the like.
Climbing up the corporate ladder is a struggle and it takes a combination of luck, good work, and everything else in between to manage successfully. The most ambitious employees have the biggest career insecurity because they have a dying desire to succeed.
It’s an inevitable part of managing your career. Successful people all went through feeling it.
Career Insecurity: 9 Ways to Overcome It
Below are 9 ways to overcome career insecurity. It’s steps that I personally used myself to get over my own career doubts throughout my career. I’ve been there before and I know exactly how it feels like. The great part is that it’s a manageable feeling.
It gets better with time and as familiarity sets in.
1) Let at Least 2 Years Pass
I felt the career insecurity when I switched jobs to the best job opportunity I could ever possibly find in 2022. I was 6 months into my career and I had to prove myself to the rest of the team, my bosses, and my coworkers. Every day felt like a struggle because I had no idea if what I was doing was even right.
However, six months is too short of a time to let pass. There needs to be at least two years that passes before the career insecurity feeling goes away. At a minimum. My insecurities went away after approximately one year of working and I had my full year performance review.
The best antidote to career doubts is just letting time pass and letting things be. There are some situations in which this is not even a possibility because the company may declare bankruptcy in the meantime and there are forced layoffs in the company.
If that happens, then it was just bad luck and there was nothing you could’ve done to avoid that.
2) Overcome Career Insecurity: Talk to Your Boss’ Boss
Your boss has the highest leverage over you but their boss has the highest leverage over them. While it’s almost impossible to get on the good graces of your boss’ boss because your boss already has an established relationship with their boss, it’s still possible.
Unfortunately, it’s most likely that your boss’s boss will take your boss’s side. Iin which case, going above the chain is a better decision. Managing office politics is one of the worst parts of having a career. However, it’s a necessary component of having a job.
To overcome career insecurity, it’s a necessity to talk to your boss’ boss and get on their good graces. I made the mistake of not doing so when I was working in a toxic work environment and I paid dearly for it. My boss always won against me because he always got his boss on his side.
You cannot win against your boss, it’s almost a near impossibility. There has to be a higher power.
3) Build Your Net Worth
Your career is irrelevant if you have FU Money. There’s no need to experience career insecurity when your net worth is already so high to begin with. A multimillionaire does not care whether or not he is fired. They already won the money game.
The best way to fight career doubt is to have so much money that your career no longer matters. If you don’t like the way your boss treats you? You can just walk away, no problem. Once my net worth reached a $500k net worth is when I took on more risk.
I said no more times, cut off more “friends” than I can count, set boundaries, and more. If I never see them ever again for the rest of my life, I couldn’t care less. Building net worth allows you to associate yourself with people who you actually like and respect.
Getting rich is one of the best weapons to have against bullies.
4) Create Multiple Sources of Income
When you have multiple sources of income, it doesn’t matter whether you are doing a bad job or good job. Now, there’s no need to actively try to do a bad job on purpose. However, when there’s multiple sources of income, all you have to do is do your best and let the uncontrollable factors slide.
The best way to deal with career insecurity is to have multiple sources of income so that if you get fired or laid off from your job, you have other income sources anyway. We get insecure at our jobs because we don’t know how negatively it will impact us in the future.
That’s why on the weekends, building and working on a side hustle that brings in additional money every single month is a great move. I actively build my income sources so that I’m never dependent on my 9-5 income only. One day, I know that it will pay off.
It’s been brutal working on the weekends when I would rather be relaxing, but it’s been worth it.
5) Move to a Stable Industry
Some industries are just unstable no matter what you do. The most volatile industries include the ones tied to commodity prices. When oil prices declined in 2016, there were many layoffs across the industry. Jobs that were permanently gone.
Career insecurity is very understandable when you work in an industry that is not stable. You may have a job one year and no job the next. Whether we like our employers or not, we like it when they make profit because that’s how we have job security ourselves.
The banking industry pays very well but it’s one of the most unstable industries you can work in. Restructurings happen frequently and unprofitable departments are cut without notice on a whim. A stable industry is highly valued and sought after.
It may not be your performance but rather the company just isn’t doing so well financially that is the problem.
6) Evaluate Whether it is Imposter Syndrome
Career insecurity and imposter syndrome go hand in hand. The most common time someone feels the imposter syndrome and career instability is when they just switch jobs. Maybe they even got a pay raise on top of it, too.
Every one of my friends went through feelings of self doubt and insecurity after they changed jobs.
For the first six months, it’s not even about doing your job, it’s about knowing the lay of the land, knowing the people, and the like. There’s so much new information that you need to absorb that it’s quite overwhelming because there’s a lack of familiarity.
Imposter syndrome is a common feeling felt by many smart people. The confident ones may not feel it but many smart people do. You may already be doing just fine and it may not even be you that’s the problem. It may even be your boss or your coworkers or anyone else in between who’s the problem.
Not everything is your fault. You are doing just fine but others are blaming their mistakes onto you.
7) Career Insecurity: Live Very Cheaply
The best defense against career insecurity is to have a low expenses and spending rate. I currently live on a $15k/year budget and therefore could live for an indefinite amount of time if I ever get laid off. When there’s little expenses, you no longer care whether or not you’ll get laid off.
Because even taking on a minimum wage job is enough to pay your bills. There’s something empowering of having low spending because it means you have the flexibility to do anything even if the worst case scenario happens. Unemployment benefits would pay me around ~$12k for six months if I get laid off.
That pays for an entire year’s worth of expenses! When you know you have an entire year’s worth of expenses paid off if you get laid off, you start to feel better about the worst case scenario. The worst case scenario is that you can afford to live for an entire year after layoffs. Which isn’t so bad.
Although spending money is fun, saving money feels more powerful.
8) Accept That You’re Not Alone
This isn’t one of those things to make you feel better. But it’s actually a fact that almost everyone goes through career insecurity at some point in their lives. Because most of us switch jobs at some point, it’s impossible to not feel insecure in a new environment.
Everyone feels career insecurity at some point. And the ones who say they don’t are flat out lying to you. Even the most accomplished CEOs and CFOs felt it at some point. Yes, some manages the stress better than others. However, that doesn’t mean the stress isn’t there.
Every single one of my friends went through the exact same feeling when they switched jobs and put themselves in a new position. Some insecurities were even so bad that they left the job in just six months. Some even left their jobs multiple times in just six months.
Managing our career is a lot of work. More work than we realize and give it credit for.
9) Accept that You Hold More Power Than You Think
You are not just a sitting duck walking alone down the roadway. You have more power than you think in managing your career and influencing others to get what you deserve. Career insecurity is a normal challenge everyone goes through at some point in their lives.
Even in a highly employer friendly country like the United States, that doesn’t mean you hold zero power as an employee. There’s always a way to come out on top. It may take more effort and work than we would like but it’s still a possibility.
I know how it feels like to feel powerless because you are the lowest rung of the ladder. It seems no matter what kind of abuse is thrown your way, you have no choice but to say yes because if you speak up, you are open to retaliation.
While it may be true, it doesn’t always have to be that way. As soon as my net worth grew, that’s when I felt good about setting boundaries and saying no to others.
Career Insecurity: My Story
I experienced career insecurity three times in my 8 year career so far. The first was when I first joined the company as the lowest rung of the ladder employee after college. The second was when I switched jobs and moved to one of the worst boss I ever worked for in my entire life.
The third was when I switched jobs again and worked for one of the best companies I will ever work for in my entire life. In each of these instances, my career doubt was solved through one reason and one reason only, time.
After I got used to the job and the work, it became easier to manage the work and office politics. The worst instance took 1.5 years before I finally became comfortable with the job. I regret not suing them and trying to burn them into the ground because how they treated me was downright workplace abuse.
In any other case, career insecurity is a normal part of your career that everyone HAS to manage at some point in their lives. After going through one of the toughest years of my life, I’m glad to have gone through it because it made me more savvy and stronger as a result.
Nothing I did was good for my boss when I had career insecurity and he exploited that to the fullest potential because I would work weekends and nights just to get a project delivered on time in which I received minimal things in exchange.
Although I bit my tongue because it allowed me to get to a $500k net worth eventually, I still regret not suing.
Career Insecurity Can be Cured
Career insecurity can only get better, not worse. The great thing about the human mind is that we have memory. Which means we remember tomorrow what we learned today. Getting comfortable at the job may take some time but it will get better. Because we’re smarter than we know.
When I was going through career insecurity, it felt like it would never stop. Every single day, I was learning something new and being put in new situations all day long. However, one day, it did stop. And I’m thriving and doing better than I ever thought that I would.
No matter how bad things get, the great thing about having a career is that it’s difficult for it to get worse as long as the company is making money and layoffs are not common. There were many who got laid off in the ’08-09 financial crisis and had to move to a lower level position due to the economic uncertainty.
Imagine the things that they went through. Thinking that they were not good enough is the reason why they had to accept demoted positions instead of realizing that the harsh economic realities of the world is the reason why they are at where they are.
Career insecurity is a curable thing because we are smarter than we give ourselves credit for. We got ourselves this far in life and we have the capabilities to take it even further. Our life is a bigger picture painting that we’re trying to complete.
When we finally earn those results, it’ll feel that much better.
Career Insecurity: 9 Ways to Overcome it Shortlist
- Let at least 2 years pass
- Overcome career insecurity: Talk to your boss’ boss
- Build your net worth
- Create multiple sources of income
- Move to a stable industry
- Evaluate whether it is imposter syndrome
- Career insecurity: live very cheaply
- Accept that you’re not alone
- Accept that you hold more power than you think
