Maximizing Potential: Navigating Underemployment and Career Fulfillment

Welcome back to the Ally from Corporate Podcast. If you're interested in learning more about career development, job searching, and growing as the badass professional I know you are, you've come to the right place. So sit back and relax. Let's get into it.

Okay, so what are we talking about today?

We are talking about underemployment.

What is that?

So underemployment can mean a few different things. I'm seeing a few different definitions on the web right now, but in today's episode, we are talking about underemployment in terms of the individual. If you are underemployed at work, you are not utilizing your talents, you're not using your skills that you're strongest at. You are maybe quietly quitting or not feeling like you're living up to your true potential at work. And maybe you're bored. You don't feel challenged. That's what I'm calling underemployment.

Okay, and what does that even mean? Those are like a row of just buzzwords.

Sure. So if you are feeling burnt out at work, if you are not enjoying the thought of going to work every day, you might be underemployed. So let's call underemployment a symptom of a larger issue that's causing people to quiet, quit, or hate their jobs or feel complacent, like, should I leave my job? Should I quit? Should I talk to my manager? So that's why I think it's important to talk about it. And I think not a lot of people recognize that they're underemployed. They just hate their jobs and they don't know why.

So would you advise people to talk to their manager about it?

So first, if somebody's feeling underemployed, if they're like, oh, God, I hate my job, I'm not feeling challenged. I'm not growing at all. I'm just, like, plateaued. You could talk to your manager, but what I'd really suggest people do is play around with ChatGPT first. And I know I probably say that in every episode, but hear me out. Before you talk to your manager, you should collect your thoughts and determine maybe the source of your unhappiness and come up with solutions, potential solutions that you can talk to your manager about instead of just going to them and complaining.

Okay. Seems to me like when you want to do that, that it's could really, like, hurt your career if you go up to your manager and tell them that kind of stuff.

And how do you Think it's hurting your career that you're underemployed. Kind of the lesser of two evils.

But when you're underemployed, you can take some time to do other things at the job, like, you know, your side gigs.

You could. But I mean, there's. There's two kinds of people in this world. There's the people that want to head in the entrepreneurship direction to a variety of degrees, or people who are just happy with their 9 to 5. They want to get their Social Security someday. They want to retire with their 401k accounts. They don't need a side hustle. Would you agree?

Yeah. There's people that work in the government that just want a pension at the end of the day. But then are they underemployed? Because when you look at the dmv, the morale is probably super low. And sometimes when I go there, it just yells to me, like, kill me.

You know, like, yeah. So, okay, let's use the DMV as an example for underemployment. If you work at the dmv, you hate going to work every day. You sit at your desk. Maybe you're not good at organization, but that's.

No, it's not here.

Do you hear that? Let's use the DMV as a case study or an example when we're talking about underemployment. So if you work at the DMV and you show up to work every day and you sit at your desk and your computer and you go through the motions, maybe you hate customer service, but that's what you have to do all day. Maybe what you'd rather do is talk, you know, with the team and brainstorm about new ideas. I bet that rarely happens at the dmv, but let's just say, like, you hate customer service, you hate. You're not detail oriented, which you need to be at a DMV job, let's say you are. Your skills are mismatched with what the job duties are. I would not go talk to your manager. I would first use AI, leverage AI and just explain your situation to ChatGPT and, and say, here's what I'd really love to be doing. And if you don't know the answer to that, take some personality tests online, like Myers Briggs Disc, a self assessment, whatever, strength finder. But you can ask ChatGPT and play around with it and say, like, I feel like I'm not utilizing my talents. ChatGPT knows the DMV, the in and outs of the DMV, believe it or not. You can ask it. Hey, are there places for me at the DMV that I could work instead of doing customer service and just see what ChatGPT says?

And I also think that we should tell people that not everybody hates their job at the dmv. There's probably really passionate people about that.

Of course, maybe there's some people out there that love customer service and love talking to strangers like you.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to work at the dmv. It's just too. Too monotone, you know, You.

And some people love that.

Yeah, I know. It's like, it's. Everybody has their. Their keys. Key skills that they're really good at. And some people just have such a crazy life outside of work that they.

Just want to have a mellow time in the office.

It's just a mellow time. And know exactly what they're gonna do. Yeah. And just be like, hey, this is what we're looking for.

No creativity involved.

No creativity. Because they're so creative and do so many amazing things outside of work that it's like their sanctuary where they just come and go and just do their thing and not have to think about stress.

And the dmv, you really think there's a lot of stress for employees of the dmv? They probably have a schedule. Every day you're meeting with these customers that have appointments, and then you leave at 5. So. Yeah. So if you're underemployed at the DMV, as an example, ask yourself what you'd rather be doing. So what's an another example we could talk about? What about like a receptionist or an office manager in a corporate building?

But see, when you're an office manager, there's always potential to grow. You know, there's like. So if you're an office manager today, I would actually ask ChatGPT how. Or make a plan. How can I succeed and learn a necessary skill to grow a level?

That's a really interesting point you're bringing up. So now I'm seeing this branch, this underemployment thing, branching off into two. Two streams. The first one is you. You feel underemployed because you want to be doing more of your current role. And so maybe you want to work for a promotion, or maybe you want more responsibilities, or the other stream of underemployment is, I'm doing the wrong job and I want to switch jobs.

So what I'm seeing lately is that people trying to get a promotion and they say, yeah, you get a promotion but no pay raise. So they'll increase your job title and your duties, but not getting a pay raise.

Okay, well you need to be able to negotiate for yourself in that and do not accept more responsibilities if you're not getting paid more.

Seems, seems clear to me. But you know, like when you, when you're trying to get into a role that's really lucrative and that can make you so much more money at another place and you have like a catch 22, are you going to take that role with less money and stick it out for six, seven months or a year and then slingshot yourself into another corporate role that pays way, way more for it because they wouldn't give you the opportunity?

This is long term career strategy.

This is. Right, this is long term career. Because I feel like if you're, if you're like employed at your max capacity, there's no way you can actually grow and succeed and kind of take that jump to the next level.

Yeah, that's why I tell people, don't give a hundred percent at your job every day. Give 80 so that you still have 20% to play around with. And that 20% and you know, 80 is good enough for most people. A lot of people aren't going to be able to, to determine whether it's your a hundred percent or your 80% effort. But if you're giving 80% at work, you're still saving 20%. If an emergency occurs at work and you need to fight a fire, metaphorically, or if you want to work on a project for free like you're talking about, and work towards your next position, then you have that 20% to play around with.

So yeah, yeah, I like it. I like it. It's, it's an interesting, it's interesting like career strategies and I feel like there's, there's like not a lot of wrongs. There's a bunch of opportunities. If I can say it, it's like, yeah, you're underemployed here, but you can take that underemployment and slingshot it into the same company, into a higher position. You can leverage it, so to speak.

Yeah, yeah, there's lots of different options. There's no one size fits all equation. If you're feeling underemployed at work. Sorry, sorry. I can't just prescribe you like you should do this and this, but that's where AI comes in. Describe it, your situation exactly with detail and it can spit out a pretty, pretty cool strategy. You can be like, hey, this is where I'm at in my career right now. This is, this is my current job. These are my current job duties. Here are where I think my strengths lie, and I'd really like to lean into those. Um, I'm feeling underemployed. What career paths are available to me? What's a career development strategy you could give me for the next six months?

You know what I think is even a better solution for that?

I can't wait to hear. Tell me.

Find a mentor.

Ooh, like a real human, not a robot.

Yeah, like a mentor that will actually hes. Because AI can scour the Internet and tell you you need to do this, this, this and this. But then when you talk to a mentor, he says, oh, this is garbage. You don't. You just need to do it once or twice and say, yeah, you're knowledgeable. And, and AI might say, oh, you need to really keen on focusing on that. And so somebody that's done it, I personally believe, will always give you a better outcome.

I think you're right. Okay, so we're still talking to real humans.

Yeah, I think I would actually switch that and trying to find a mentor because I, I have an interesting thing, because I did not believe in networking before and now I believe in networking like you wouldn't believe. So I think AI cannot replace networking.

Oh, bold claim. Tell me about that.

So I think that. So when you get out of college, there's soft and hard skills, right?

Yep.

And so I think when you're. The first job that you're going to get is going to require your hard skill. Nobody's going to hire you because of your soft skill, because they want you to do a specific task. And they will say, as an engineer, they say, can you do these math questions and can you optimize the engineering department or can you perform the task duties? Then as you get into Engineer 2, Engineer 3, staff engineers and whatnot, you're going to be more, you're going to be more on the skill level. Right. But then once you're going to into a manager position and you're going to be manager, director and whatnot, you're going to need more of the soft skills, the skills of persuasion, the skills leadership, the advocating for your department, about funding, about getting, you know, getting hires on your board, you know.

Yeah, I bet vice presidents probably don't do a lot of Excel in PowerPoint.

Yeah. And so it's. So it requires you to do different things. And that's what I think a mentor can really really point you in the right direction.

You're probably right. So let's talk about finding a mentor. In the case of you're feeling underemployed, you'd like some help. Not from a robot. For those of you that are not as crazy about AI as I am. So if we're still talking to real people, you can go up to somebody at work that you admire. You can even email them and you can say, hey, I really admire where you've gotten.

I wouldn't do it over email.

Here I am talking to robots again. Okay, you're right. You're so much better. I think you're the extrovert of this relationship and I'm the introvert.

You couldn't talk that. You should ask them personally and say, hey, I'm having these questions. Can you kind of guide me through this? And you don't have to ask him, like, hey, do you want to be my mentor? Because then he might be, oh, there's another thing. Yeah, but just ask me, hey, can you guide me through this? I'm trying to reach there. And I think if you ask anybody in your organization and you say, hey, I want to reach this level or reach this position or reach this goal, they're not going to say, you know, you should just. You should just do what you do and just don't ask.

Or like, I don't have time. Sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

Because you're asking for what, 10 minutes of their time?

10 minutes. And they might say, hey, those are really cool, cool questions. Let's meet in an office. Let's, you know, let's. Let's meet on Zoom or let's meet in my office and we'll talk about it.

Yeah. All right. So no email. You're right. You're right. Talking to people, like, in person and asking for that kind of thing makes me nervous sometimes, which is why I lead more towards talking to robots. But you're right. Approach somebody. I agree with what you're saying. Don't say, will you be my mentor? It sounds like a fourth grader saying, will you be my valentine? So it can be an unspoken thing. You don't have to. It's like in a relationship, like, oh, can we put a title on this? Are we boyfriend and girlfriend yet? You don't ha. It can be an unspoken thing. Mentorship.

Yeah.

It can be casual. In fact, I. I bet a lot of people that are more seasoned in their career would rather it be a more casual thing than I am Sarah's mentor officially. So, yeah, approach them and just, I. I would give them a compliment first and, and give them context as to why you're asking them and not the other guy next to them. Like, hey, I love where you've gotten in your career. I really admire. Like, I looked at your LinkedIn page. I noticed, like, you've gotten a promotion every couple years. How can I do that? Can I, like, treat you to lunch or can we, you know, set up a zoom call?

Like a carrot.

Give my carrot, because.

Yeah. So back to my thing where hard skills were asked for. You and then, you know, the soft skills. So I didn't really believe in networking when I was in my early 20s because I just didn't believe that networking might get you a better job in your early 20s because it's our all hard skills. So, yes, it might lend you better position, but you still need to perform.

Yeah.

Especially when you're fresh out of college. They're. They're gonna be really keen on you performing your job duties.

Yes, I completely agree. Can I ask you a question about Switzerland for a moment?

Yeah.

So, Rico, you're from Switzerland. You moved here about eight years ago.

Yeah.

To the US and tell me a little bit about how networking would. Would have worked if you still worked in Switzerland.

I have no idea. I was never in the field of. I didn't stick around long enough to know if networking would have helped or not because I only worked there a few years. Five, six years.

Okay.

So I couldn't tell you if networking would have helped out because I wasn't at a position in my first job or my second job that networking would have been required. It was all hard skills.

I see. Okay. I'm an adventure. I guess from what I know about Switzerland and Swiss people, I'm an adventure. Guess that networking is not as hot there as it is in the U.S.

I think it is if you're in the right field. If you're in the right field, maybe you're in the right. In the right atmosphere and you're in the right. If you're on a career track, I do think so. But I wasn't on a career track like that. That that would have required. It's all about, can you do this? Can you do this? Yeah. What's your salary expectations? That's it.

Oh, gosh. So cut and dry.

So, yeah, I've never been to. So all my interviews are basically going through a checklist. Can you do this? Can you do this? Can you do this? What would you do if this happens? And how about this? Okay. What's your salary expectations? Can we meet them? Yeah, okay, we'll send you a contract. So it wasn't like it wasn't warm.

And fuzzy like networking is sometimes.

No, it's not like, hey, you know. But I did have. Before I moved to the United States, I did have an opportunity because of networking. So it was either me managing 20 stores as technical supervisors. So before I moved to the United States, I networked because I did H Vac. So I ran a team of four installation crews and I also did repairs myself. And I did a whole bunch of different things. And so I went to this class and I've met this guy that worked for a grocery chain in Switzerland, one of the biggest ones. So almost like Walmart or Target. And he said, hey, they're looking for a district manager to take over 20 stores. And every. And every store has repairs that need to be done. So if the repairs over like $500, you need to go check and make sure that these repairs are done adequately. If you can do them cheaper and get quotes and whatnot. So you can either outsource or do it yourself and see how stuff goes. So I had that opportunity, but then I said no. And I kind of burnt the relationship because I interviewed, I went to check it out, he showed me around what my job duties would be and then I said no.

Why'd you say no? Sounds like an incredible opportunity.

Yeah, because I moved to the United States so. And I would have been stuck at that job for a long time. Had great benefits, but I would have.

I see it was a more long term commitment, like long term career strategy.

It was long term career strategy. That would have been through networking and.

Yeah, very interesting. So okay, that's interesting. Yeah. I always find like the differences between Switzerland and the U.S. fascinating. And we are going to Switzerland next week. Yeah, for about two weeks. So if you want a behind the scenes look at some of the stuff we're doing there, business related or just, you know, for fun, follow us on Instagram. And my handle is @ali from corporate0 on Instagram. And Rico's is Rico Eggenberger. So we're going to give you like behind the scenes of our trip there. We go there pretty often and I love Switzerland. So back to underemployment. While we wrap this up, I'd say if you are feeling underemployed, like something is missing from your career, something's missing. You feel like you're not shining as bright of a star as you think you could be shining at work. Try to do some brainstorming first and figure out what the problem is and what some potential solutions are. And then you could talk to your manager if you think that, you know, your manager could give you more responsibilities or a promotion with a raise or. I mean, I'd be careful, though, if. If you were going to talk to your manager and your manager's like, yep, sorry, that's all we got for you here. If you want something better, you gotta leave. Just be careful of that because you might be kind of digging your own grave. So check to see if there's any opportunities within your company. If you'd like to stay there, then talk to your manager or take matters into your own hands and start job searching or, you know, work on your own personal project at work for that 20% of the time. Anything else you would add?

Nope. Let's wrap this up. It's been time.

Sounds good. We got stuff to do. Thank you for tuning in. If you're not following us on YouTube, it's Ali from Corporate Zero on YouTube. And we film these once in a while, so be sure to check us out. And obviously I'm on all the other social platforms. Follow me there too, and we will catch you in the next episode.

See ya.