The In-House Career Rut Is Real, but You Can Stop Feeling Stuck

When I was in private practice, everyone always described being in-house as achieving legal nirvana. “Gone are the days of billable hours!” “No more demanding partners or clients!” “Huzzah, we get our weekends back!”

So I made the transition in-house, and it was blissful for a long time. For many years, I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. I loved working closely with the business to help the company achieve its goals; I loved working on projects from ideation to completion; I loved being part of a team and that my internal clients called me their lawyer.

But the bright, shiny object starts to lose its luster over time. What no one talks about is that eventually, at a mature company, your career development and progression will plateau. You end up seeing the same things repeatedly. Your workday is like a wash cycle of rinse-and-repeat.

As a lifelong learner—or perhaps someone with a short attention span—I couldn’t take this state of inertia. I longed for new challenges, new questions to wrestle with, and new problems to solve.

I am not alone. I asked a few of my close in-house friends to be honest about how they feel at work. Some admitted that they’re disengaged. These friends are seasoned in-house practitioners who have been at their companies for a while. “But what else am I going to do?” they ask.

So, what do you do if you’re feeling stuck at work? Practically speaking, a person can’t just switch jobs whenever they’ve hit a plateau. Here are a few suggestions.

First, raise your hand. Volunteer for new projects or different coverage areas and treat them like stretch opportunities. Take on a pro bono matter.

After four years at Public Storage, I was itching to learn something new. I asked my boss if I could start doing employment counseling and litigation, and he was thrilled to share the load.

This led me to the intricate and complicated web of employment law—where seemingly simple tasks, such as paying employees, suddenly became as challenging as doing AP calculus BC. Advising on employee relations sometimes felt like I was on an episode of “Jerry Springer.”

If you’re in a siloed work environment, where the swim lanes are clearly defined, let it be known that you want to explore other practice areas. Odds are that the company would rather retain you than lose you, so they’ll find ways to keep you challenged.

Second, find external opportunities for engagement. Board work, volunteering, or joining an organization you care about can feed your soul and expose you to new experiences. What started for me as reading to Title I elementary school kids turned into a decade-long board term on Read to a Child.

The Association of Corporate Counsel, Southern California Chapter helped me transition from private practice to in-house and gave me a support network for those occasional sanity check moments. When I was asked to join the board, I jumped at the chance to give back to the organization that had given me so much. This led to eight years on the board, culminating as the chapter president.

Third, get certified in something you’ve always wanted to learn. Recognizing that privacy law was an ever-growing field, I decided to sit for a Certified Information Privacy Professional exam. Three months of intense study later, I learned everything there was to know about privacy law—including that I didn’t want to be a privacy attorney.

Finally, pursue that passion project you’ve been meaning to start. I recently connected with Stacy Bratcher, who launched the podcast “The Legal Department” while serving as the general counsel of a health-care company. Stacy had a different motivation for starting the podcast—she moved to a new area and wanted a way to network with other legal professionals.

Apparently, Stacy’s podcast, which has listeners in 30 countries and over 2,000 monthly downloads, is better at connecting people than LinkedIn. But the best part is that Stacy gets to have meaningful conversations with legal professionals from all corners of the industry and gets to learn from their experiences.

Another friend, Libby Stockstill, former general counsel at several well-known companies, also had a different motivation. She had always wanted to write but struggled to find the time with demanding roles and motherhood. It wasn’t until Libby joined Vans, where she was surrounded by people who somehow made space to do creative things, that she took the first step toward writing.

Through creative expression, Libby discovered a deeper, more authentic leadership style, which resonated with her team and the business. She went on to found Some Days, where she supports clients in the intentional pursuit of big dreams through coaching, consulting, writing, speaking, workshops and retreats.

Libby told me that we sometimes resist moving toward our dreams because it can seem daunting, saying, “I invite clients to explore the power in even the ‘smallest’ movements. That first baby step toward whatever calls to you can create a meaningful shift in how you see and move through the world and energize you in a whole new way. These nudges we feel often hold a clue to a significant unlock.”

There is a natural lifecycle to every job, so it’s OK to feel like you’re caught in a rut sometimes. Take heart in knowing that you aren’t alone, and there are ways to stay engaged, inspired, and always learning.

Columnist Ellen Yang is the general counsel and a partner at DTO Law and previously held in-house leadership roles at Cruise LLC, Penske Motor Group, and Taco Bell. She writes about career and lifestyle for Bloomberg Law.