It’s not just escapologists—sometimes we all feel trapped in our jobs. It’s no picnic to feel trapped in your job, and the damage it does can be considerable. It’s toxic; closing in, weighing down on you, and slowing your steps. Over time, if you let it, you’ll forget how ambitious you used to be, you’ll wonder when your get-up-and-go got-up-and-went, and you’ll get a little nostalgic for how confident you once felt.

2. Comparing yourself unfavorably to your colleagues is going to achieve one thing
spectacularly well: making you feel really, really crappy. Everyone’s better and worse
than others on a limitless number of scales. Comparison is redundant. Being confident
enough to apply your best, on the other hand, is gold dust.

3. Some businesses and markets are tougher than others, but it’s been that way since
the agricultural revolution. It will always be that way. And only believing the
naysayers and doom-mongers will secure your place in the also-ran. People do make
moves. People do take leaps. People do reach for better things. You can, too.

4. Staying put and waiting it out is only a good tactic if it’s part of a larger strategy
that you can influence—like saving up enough money to start your own thing.
Otherwise, it’s just wasting time, doubting yourself, and carving yourself a rut so
deep that feeling trapped becomes a way of life.

5. When you don’t know what you want, it seems like the only valid option available is
to stay where you are until the answer appears, regardless of how trapped it might
make you feel.
But there is another option: Start asking yourself some questions. Is it a job with more
autonomy? Something in a different city? Perhaps you want to get more creative or to
take on more responsibility—or maybe all you know is that you don’t want to work for
someone else.

6. The belief that you have to pay your dues, hustle to get ahead, and prove yourself is
one of the more subtly pernicious and damaging ones that exists in the world of work.
It fuels a sense of having to do what’s expected (from your boss, from your peers, or
from society) over doing what’s right—and that’s a surefire way of feeling trapped.
The truth is, you don’t have to prove anything. You just have to feel free enough to do
your best work, wherever that may take you.

7. The AMCAT is India’s first employability assessment test that help fresh graduates
to get their first job quickly and efficiently.