21 Ways to jump start your career

[jump start your career]

NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Tomorrow morning, take a good look around your desk at work. The files that haven't budged in years, the phone with the "1" almost worn off, the chair your body knows so well, the Sticky Notes.

Is it all a little too familiar? Is your workspace the centerpiece of a job that's become predictable? Here's the real question: Is this the desk you dreamed you'd be sitting at by this point in your career?

In this still spotty job market, more and more people are finding themselves in a career rut (or plateau, to put it more gently). American workers are staying in the same jobs longer -- a quarter of people ages 35 to 44 have stayed at the same gig for more than 10 years, as have half of all workers over 45.

More than a quarter of workers say they're "often" or "very often" burned out by their jobs, according to a survey by the Families and Work Institute. Those numbers add up to a lot of people who may not be realizing their potential or, worse, their dreams of success.

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