How do you end up building a career you did not intend to choose?
A pattern I see in career conversations is what I call the competency trap. You become very good at something, build a successful career around it, and find yourself increasingly unhappy doing the work. By all accounts… you made it… you’re successful… and yet you feel so empty.
It does not necessarily begin with a bad decision. Sometimes it simply begins with a very practical decision at the start of your career.
Imagine graduating with a civil engineering degree. You hoped to work on buildings, but the first offer you receive is for work on drainage systems. You need a job, and this is an opportunity to earn money and gain experience, so you take it. After all, everyone tells you the job market is so tough!
You tell yourself you will stay for a couple of years. There is plenty to learn, and perhaps you worry that leaving sooner would make you look like a job hopper.
After two or three years, you start considering your next move. You still have an interest in the work you originally wanted, but your experience is now in drainage. Another employer values that experience and offers you a role doing similar work for more money.
That feels easier than changing direction. You do not want to lose out on income or the progression of a career. Starting over already doesn’t feel like a reasonable option.
So you take the next job. You get better. You get promoted. Perhaps you eventually become a manager.
And every few months you catch yourself daydreaming about that other career path you never took.
Each step makes sense on its own. But the direction those steps take you may be getting farther from the work you wanted to build your career around.
Why does getting better make it harder to change direction?
As your experience grows, it becomes easier to demonstrate what you can do in that particular area. You have projects to discuss, results to point to, and a history that employers can recognize.
Meanwhile, the work you originally wanted to pursue may still be an area where you have relatively little experience. Unfortunately, companies hire for experience more than passion. (I mean, that’s not necessarily how I did my hiring… but I wasn’t a typical manager.)
You might worry that moving toward it would mean a lower salary or a less senior role. You may encounter employers who want experience you have not had an opportunity to develop. And by now, your life may depend on the income you are earning.
That is where the feeling of being trapped can become especially strong.
You are good at the work. It pays. It is familiar. But it does not provide the interest, energy, or enjoyment you hoped your career would contain.
Sometimes this becomes a form of golden handcuffs: the compensation makes leaving difficult, even when staying feels increasingly unsatisfying.
That does not mean the financial concerns are imaginary or that you should ignore them. They are part of the context you have to work within.
It means being successful at something can keep reinforcing a direction you would not otherwise choose.
What does a competency trap look like?
In the previous article on assessing your professional strengths, we looked at three separate scores for each area of your profession: knowledge, skill, and enjoyment.
The pattern I look for here is:
- High knowledge: You understand the subject well. (Scored at an 8 or higher)
- High skill: You can execute the work successfully. (Scored at an 8 or higher)
- Low enjoyment: You do not like doing it or want more of it. (Scored less than a 5)
When a person’s career is centered on work with that pattern, I would explore whether they are in a competency trap.
While the scores give us somewhere to start, we still need to understand what is behind them. As we have discussed in earlier articles, you may dislike the work itself, the conditions in which you do it, or both.
For example, a poor experience with a manager may have affected your enjoyment of a particular activity. That is different from realizing that even under good conditions, you would prefer not to spend your career doing it.
The distinction matters because it changes what you might want to work toward.
Can you have a successful career inside a competency trap?
Yes. Absolutely. Many (most?) people do. You can continue delivering strong work, progressing your career, and earning more money.
You may have a substantial record of accomplishments. People may trust you because you have solved their problems before. From the outside, there may be little indication that you feel lost or stuck.
But the work can begin to feel like a chore. You know how to do it, yet you have little desire to explore it further or develop your own perspective on it.
You may find yourself relying on what has worked before, with less interest in experimenting, questioning your approach, or developing the work into a craft.
That is one reason capability and enjoyment need to be considered separately. A successful track record does not tell the whole story of your relationship with the work.
What does this look like in my own career?
I built my career in product marketing. I have substantial knowledge and skill across many of its competencies and dimensions.
But it does not give me the same enjoyment or meaning as career coaching.
Helping someone rediscover their identity, understand what makes them unique, regain confidence, and develop their career gives me energy. It is work I want to keep exploring and getting better at.
I could still consider returning to product marketing in technology. My experience has value, and the earning potential can make that a compelling option. But, I would have to do something far more aligned to who I am and similar in the work I’m doing now. I have said that returning to a company focused on mental health or injustices in the world, would be meaningful enough for me to return.
There is also a sense of safety in work you know how to do. You have done it before. You understand the problems. You can draw on familiar skills. You can almost just do it in your sleep.
That pull is very real. Recognizing it helps me distinguish between work I could return to because I am capable of doing it and work I want to keep developing because it matters to me.
What is the longer-term risk of staying in the trap?
The concern goes beyond being unhappy today.
One risk I want people to consider is what happens when familiarity starts replacing development.
You know how to deliver, so you keep using the approaches that have served you well. But if the profession, technology, or expectations around the work change, those approaches may need to change too.
When you already dislike the work, finding the motivation to keep learning can feel difficult. You may have little interest in exploring new methods or updating your understanding. The work you once felt confident doing can gradually move beyond the knowledge and skills you have kept current.
Then, when you need a new job, your past accomplishments may no longer demonstrate everything a prospective employer needs.
That is a possible risk. Sure, some people can keep their skills current in work they do not enjoy… but I’ve never seen it end well. It is worth asking yourself: Am I continuing to develop this area, or mostly relying on what I already know?
The work that feels safe because it is familiar may not stay equally familiar forever.
Where can you begin if you recognize this pattern?
Start by identifying the specific areas where your knowledge and skill are high but your enjoyment is low. You do not need to dismiss your whole profession or make an immediate decision about leaving.
For one of those areas, ask:
- What keeps this work at the center of my career: interest, income, familiarity, recognition, or something else?
- Would I want more of it if the conditions were better?
- Am I interested in developing it further?
- What other competency would I actually like to learn and practice?
Recognizing a competency trap does not erase the value of your experience. You may need to keep using those skills while gradually developing another direction.
The important part is making room to investigate work that interests you. When you want to understand a subject, try it, and improve at it, you have a reason to keep returning to the learning and practice that development requires.
You have already shown that you can become capable at something. The next question is which capabilities you want to spend the coming years building.
