How do I know when I've outgrown a role?

Efri · 1 min read

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When you stop learning and start performing.

You know the work. You could do it half asleep. Nothing surprises you. You can predict your next twelve months almost exactly, and none of it worries you.

That's the point. Not the day it becomes unbearable. Most people wait for unbearable, which is years too late, and by then the gap between what they can do and what they've done has grown.

Other signs:

You're the person people ask instead of the person asking. The hard problems have stopped coming to you, because they know you'll handle them and they'd rather stretch someone else. You've started caring about things that aren't the work.

The politics, the perks, the schedule. You're bored and slightly relieved about it.

Outgrown doesn't have to mean leave. It means the current shape is finished. Either the role changes or you do.