Retraining is an important step and it has as many good things as bad things about it.
When one is at a standstill they can rest assured that career options will increase if they obtain more education or certifications.
The problem seems to be that gray area when the job market seems to tell you that you are over qualified and the prospective employer is afraid you will either leave when a better job comes along or that you will be hard to work with. Sometimes an experienced employee will bring with them a wealth of valuable experience but also a lot of habits that are hard to break.
Debriefing is what every company that hires an experienced employee has to endure…someone that is new and eager to contribute is perceived to be a threat because in their rush to contribute they rush headlong into areas to show off their skills but it may not be aligned with the aims of the company.One example that comes to mind is a bank teller I know who has bounced around from one job to another with a slightly bad reputation….they think they are a “go-getter” but their company thinks the employee is unmanageable!
This is based on constantly doing things “his way” because, after all, he has experience and doesn’t want anyone treating him like a baby. Taking the initiative is great when everyone has the same approach and the same result in mind…the problem begins when people hide their mistakes and become insubordinate rather than control their ego and blend in.
The bank teller has a system and it stems back to his first job in the banking industry…he formed his impressions based on that initial training class and never adjusted. He knows how to interview very well and has a lot of charisma…he also can do all the computer based training modules required of new employees but when he is on the floor….he simply does whatever he wants.He is honest, he never cheats his company by having a short count on his cash drawer but he robs his company in a more subtle way…he creates extra work for his department while they unravel the many mysteries caused by his refusal to follow procedures. The problems are hard to catch at first until a customer calls to follow up on a conversation and during the investigation of customer history they see that transactions were logged improperly and missing details.
The reason why I mention this case in point is because he replaced one replaceable job with another for years until he realized he was a retread with no opportunity for advancement until he woke up and saw his day to day existence was not satisfying and that all he did was take shortcuts and work the system.
He eventually broke the cycle and learned to assess his true talents with the help of a series of tests designed to reveal strengths and weaknesses given by his career coach.
The coach gave him a no holds barred assessment and told him he was lazy and afraid of stretching himself…at first the words stung…but it reached him and he underwent a career overhaul and retraining…he now works in human resources for a large company where he can spot trends of dissatisfied workers and reach them before it is too late!
