The biggest secret to breaking out of a career rut. (It literally is a secret).

Did you bounce back into the office this year, fresh as a daisy, with a hankering to blast your way through another 12 months of productive, outstanding work?

Or were you inwardly deflating as you dragged your feet back to your desk?

Perhaps you worked your butt off through the entire Christmas period and caught yourself thinking, ‘This is the last time. I am SO done with this.’

Or, maybe you were fine all holidays, but it was the night before you went back to the office that you couldn’t shake that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.

Back to work blues are pretty normal this time of year, but sometimes it can be more than just the January jitters.

Sometimes it’s a fatigue that won’t wane, a weight on your shoulders, a feeling in your guts, an inner monologue that says; ‘This isn’t right anymore.’

It might be starting to affect your personal life, your ability to get any work done, your ability to recognise yourself in the bathroom mirror and like what you see.

It could be a rut.

Luckily there’s a few ways out of it.

1. You can ignore that feeling, whack a big old smile on your face, grind your teeth while filling out your gratefulness journal #soblessed and find the joy in the free tea bags in the kitchen.

2. You can cast your mind to greener pastures and fantasise about having other jobs.  (I’ve been a baker, a café owner, house cleaner, lawyer, I’ve gone to medical school, become a vegan pilates instructor, started a small independent book store and pulled beers for a living).

3. Or you can actually do something about it and go chase another job.

And it could be the weather, it could be the promise of an empty calendar and the chance to set a course for ourselves, but JANUARY is the time to do it. Because it’s January that career changes go gangbusters.

A smallish problem, though, is a lot of the time, it’s scary to take your foot out of one industry, not knowing if you’ll ever get it in another.  Upskilling takes time.  Schmoozing takes energy.  And what if you don’t even know what you want to do but the only thing you DO know for sure is that you need to do something or you’ll go crazy?

Here’s the secret:

Become a Surveillance Officer.

Not even a joke.

ASIO are after people for Surveillance Officer roles. That’s the Australian Intelligence Organisation, who identify and investigate threats to security and provide advice to protect Australia, its people and its interests. Surveillance Officers play a critical role in helping ASIO to achieve this goal.

Surveillance Officers, once trained, are highly skilled specialists who are capable of adapting to their surroundings in order to covertly achieve their tasks.

Bet you didn’t even THINK of this, did you? And the beauty of it?  I mean, apart from knowing that you could be a surveillance officer in real life, is that they don’t need people that have a certain skill set or career or background or education.

They are looking for people from all walks of life.  All experience levels. People like you, who might be a bit bored of their job, who might be thinking ‘I need to try something else’ but who didn’t even KNOW this was a thing, hadn’t considered something outside of the normal sphere, or even considered a different field.

A fresh start, in a job you hadn’t even thought of, and which you are probably qualified for without even knowing it?

Told you it was a massive secret.

Jobs aren’t just about moving up the ranks. Sometimes they’re about moving sideways, developing a richer set of skills. Sometimes they’re about finding new challenges, getting involved in something new, or finding a role which has meaning and genuinely makes a difference. Often, that’s all that’s needed to get your wheels spinning again, get those juices flowing, cast off that career fatigue and find your place.

Jobs are in unusual places. So take charge, right now, and apply. Movement creates other movement, and the more you move, the less time you’ll have to settle into that career-rut.

Are you stuck in a career-rut?