With millions of jobs lost this year alone, unemployment rates are at their highest in decades. The manufacturing and construction industries have been especially hard hit. Rather than stay in shrinking industries, however, many unemployed workers are turning to higher education to transition to industries with more plentiful career opportunities.

Sherry Fitzgerald of Detroit is a part of this transition. When she lost her job at a Detroit auto plant a year ago, she began investigating other careers. "I had always thought of becoming a nurse," Fitzgerald says. "I knew the pay and the job security were good."

The more Fitzgerald found out about the nursing field, the more she was convinced it was the right field for her. "After getting a bachelor’s and 2 years on the job, I could easily be making as much as $80,000 with good benefits," Fitzgerald says. "I thought, what am I waiting for?"

A friend recommended she visit Classes and Careers.com, a free online education information resource. In a few minutes, users can fill out a form and be connected live with an education advisor. "Not long after," Fitzgerald says, "an advisor called me and helped me find a nice, flexible online program. I could do lectures and homework at night from my computer after the kids went to sleep. It was really easy to use."

Now more than halfway through her program, Fitzgerald has left the troubled American auto industry for a secure, lucrative career in health care, and she’s not alone. Statistics show that enrollment at universities and colleges has jumped in the last 6 months, and most of those enrolling are victims of layoffs. "They realize they can’t stay where they were," says university career advisor Robert Green. "They’ve got to adapt, and education is the best way to do it."

You don’t have to settle for unemployment pay or job insecurity. Go back to school and earn a degree in a more secure, high-paying field by completing the helpful online form at ClassesandCareers.com. An education advisor will help you find the right degree program to set you on a new career path.

So you’ve been working at the same job for awhile. You haven’t been promoted or transferred. You’re doing the same thing you did when you started. You haven’t gotten a raise despite several favorable reviews. Worst of all, you can tell work is getting to you. You’re more anxious somehow. Maybe you’re even developing a bit of a temper. Basically, you’re in a dead-end job.

The problem is this: you know you’re in a dead-end job and yet you feel powerless to do anything about it. But why? Why not quit? Why not find something more meaningful? The purpose of this article is to examine some of the possible answers to these questions and to investigate how people like you can escape the mire of a dead-end job.

Ignorance

One of the most common reasons that people stick with dead-end jobs is precisely that they don’t recognize them as such. Maybe they think a promotion or a raise is just around the corner. Maybe they’re convinced that if they endure just a little longer, it will all be worth it. Frankly, this attitude is the same kind of wishful ignorance that accompanies most of the slot machines in Las Vegas, only in this instance they’re gambling more than just money — they’re wasting their professional lives, one quarter at a time.

Another variety of ignorance is the belief that there aren’t any better jobs out there. This kind of ignorance is based on the assumption that dead-end jobs are the rule and not the exception. (Sure, you’re in a dead-end job but so is everybody else, right?) People who think like this tend to be anxious and pessimistic — two characteristics which, not coincidentally, also happen to be symptoms of being stuck in a dead-end job.

Contentedness

As strange as it sounds, some people stay in dead-end jobs because they’re actually content — not with their work but rather with their compensation. These people value comfort and routine, and they love the consistency of a regular paycheck. As such, the prospect of venturing into the unknown or taking a temporary pay cut in order to pursue a new opportunity is unacceptable. Or, at least, it’s less acceptable than staying in a dead-end job.

Apathy

On the surface, the symptoms of apathy may seem similar to those of contentedness. The difference lies in the motivation: whereas contented workers remain in dead-end jobs because they value routine or because they feel adequately compensated, apathetic workers stay with jobs because they simply don’t care. Apathy is an absence of all feeling — for good or for ill — and as such, apathetic workers don’t have strong feelings of any kind toward their job or toward work generally. They simply exist in a gray twilight that stretches from nine to five.

Fear

Though ignorance, contentedness, and apathy share some of the blame, it is certain that the single most common reason for people staying in dead-end jobs is fear. One reason for its prominence is the shear of number of fears available — fear of the unknown, fear of risk, and fear of failure, to name but a few. People fear being under-qualified or under-educated for better jobs; they fear being unable to meet financial obligations; most of all, they fear ending up worse off than they were before. Is it any wonder that Henry David Thoreau declared that “most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them”?

So how do you escape this “life of quiet desperation” embodied in the notion of a dead-end job? How do you overcome ignorance, apathy, and fear? How do you learn to take risks when you’re predisposed to comfort and security? Alas, the answers to these questions, which are fundamental to the reasons why people stick with dead-end jobs, elude simple explanations. They are as complex and as varied as each individual. And yet, this is precisely the purpose of this forum — to pursue these questions and to identify strategies that will allow each individual to make educated decisions.

The key, of course, is knowledge. The more you know, the better equipped you will be to make choices about a potential career change or about furthering your education. The good news is that there’s hope. Figuring out that you’re in dead-end job is just the first step. Once you realize that you’re in a dead-end job and, more importantly, why you’re staying, then you can take steps to combat ignorance, fear, and even apathy and get out of that dead-end job once and for all.

At this point, your tendency might be to resist. Maybe you think your job really isn’t dead-end (ignorance) or that you really do like your job (contentedness). Maybe you’re not motivated (apathy) or maybe you’re feeling anxious (fear). If so, perhaps you should consider this final, telling question: if you’re really not stuck in a dead-end job, or if you really didn’t want to do something about it, then why are you reading this in the first place?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Benjamin Welch has been a college instructor in writing and composition for nearly six years. When he’s not teaching or playing golf, he offers advice for students seeking information about online education and online degrees.

Are you satisfied with your job? If not, you should consider getting more education. Education is one of the few tried-and-true methods of enhancing a career. Furthering your education increases your professional competency and makes you more marketable to potential employers. In material terms, this means you will be a better candidate for promotions and you will make more money.

The problem is that for many working adults, going back to school is simply not an option, not if going back to school means quitting their job. But there is an alternative — namely, online education. Online education allows you to go back to school without going anywhere at all. All you need is a computer and an internet connection.

This podcast explores the material advantages of furthering your education, specifically through online education, and then explains some of the ways online education differs from traditional education.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR & NARRATOR

Benjamin Welch has been a college instructor in writing and composition for nearly six years. When he’s not teaching or playing golf, he offers advice for students seeking information about online education and online degrees.