I’m confronted with a situation I’ve never had to address before, and am in need of some helpful hints in doing so.

Nearly 6 months ago, I accepted a position with a mortgage company. (The original ad was for a “Mortgage Assistant to help in all phases of marketing & processing”.) Although the pay was significantly lower than I felt I was worth, I still accepted the position based on 2 considerations – (1) I knew I had to prove myself in what I was capable of and show them that I was the ambitious self-starter I claimed to be, and (2) It was a somewhat unique position that combined my skill set and would allow me to broaden my skills in one area (marketing), while utilizing my skills in another area (processing). In my 2 interviews, I stressed to them that I wanted to enter into the marketing arena because the field was well-suited for my extrovert “people-person” personality, but also that I greatly valued their “teamwork” philosophy they talked about.

For the first 3 months, I remained very patient; offering help in areas I knew I was capable of handling, developing marketing campaigns, revamping systems to make them more user friendly, researching to find loan products that would be valuable to our market – just to name a few. However, the majority of the assignments I have been given have been merely administrative tasks. {Data entry, personal-assistant-type tasks, meeting management (agendas, note-taking, minutes), etc.}This position has turned into NO processing, very little marketing (I am not free to initiate and carry out campaigns on my own) and A of admin. My boss even expressed to me at my 3 month review that I was performing duties that would qualify as an Admin II. (Based on my overall performance). I did not receive any type of salary review at that point.

Since then, I have expressed my desire to broaden my duties to start implementing more of the processing duties that were outlined in my original “Job Duties” list given to me my first day. My boss said that it was “a great idea” and some goals were set to move in that direction. He questioned the goals I set for myself, concerned I was “trying to take on too much”, and I explained that much of what I wanted to pursue was more about DOING than LEARNING, since I in fact have had the experience, but simply wanted more opportunity to perform them. Still, I have been given little opportunity to perform them, even after asking for tasks & offering help. I continue to be “baby-sat” in the marketing duties, constantly having to ask permission to pursue certain ideas, or my ideas being put-off in order to perform “more important” admin duties. I often feel LESS of a team-member, only here to take care of the menial tasks the team would rather not be bothered with. I do not get the opportunity to utilize my “people-person” personality because I am stuck at my cubicle doing admin with very little human interaction throughout the day.

In order to gain some perspective and approach the situation objectively, I have also conducted some research to find that, even as an “Admin II”, I am grossly underpaid, only earning in the bottom 10 percentile of an Admin I, and get NO benefits whatsoever. There does not appear to be any positive outlook for me.

I have never been faced with a situation like this: not being given the opportunity to be challenged and pushed to my potential and not feeling financially valued. The outlook seems grim. I would much rather stay and perform duties for which I thought I was hired and am willing to be patient in my compensation provided there is “a light at the end of the tunnel”, but considering the fact that I have addressed the job duties issues, I do not foresee that being a possibility.

So, my question is, how do put my foot down? I’ve never had to do this before and don’t know where to proceed from here!