You’re at a party, meeting a friend of a friend, and getting to know each other. “Tell me about yourself,” they say. In a situation like this, we turn to the basic personal information: our age, where we’re from, and what we do professionally.
It’s not surprising that career details are so inextricably linked to our identity. After all, we are encouraged to select our career path quite early. Then, after doing the same thing for years, it feels as if it’s become a natural part of us. But what if you’re ready for a new path? Let’s look at tips from success and psychology experts:
Figure out whether you’re actually looking for a new identity
Most professionals approaching a crossroads focus intensely on a perfectly tailored CV or on new credentials. Despite doing everything “right,” some still feel like impostors in their own lives. Before embarking on a career change quest, pause and reflect. It’s crucial to understand that changing what you do and changing who you are are not the same project.
Career changes present a practical problem, while changing how you see yourself is a human one. So before you start, it might help to ask yourself: When I picture my new role, am I picturing myself doing the work, or am I picturing how others will see me? And if no one else knew about this change, would it still feel meaningful to me?
If you feel comfortable and satisfied in your professional identity, here is some practical career advice:
Embrace a “squiggly career”
It’s common to view a career as a single upward climb within one company or industry. A “squiggly career” is the modern alternative to the traditional career ladder — a path that moves sideways, diagonally, and through unexpected pivots. Where the old model rewarded staying put, today’s employers are more interested in your ability to adapt and keep moving forward.
Instead of perceiving career change as a detour from the “real” path, try viewing the squiggle as the path. Discover more about this mindset in our summary of The Squiggly Career by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis.
Stop waiting for permission from your résumé
When considering how to start a new career, many professionals feel locked into the path their degree set them on. Research shows that roughly 75% of graduates end up working in a field different from the one they studied. This means that your past choices don’t have to dictate your future ones.
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, the authors of Designing Your Life, suggest a useful exercise: instead of researching a new career from a distance, find a way to “prototype” it — talk to people doing the work, shadow them, or take on a small trial version of it before committing fully.
Conduct a skills audit and remember that skills compound
Many professionals assume a career change means starting from nothing. A more effective strategy is to focus on what Cal Newport, author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You, calls “career capital.” These are rare and valuable transferable skills that you can eventually exchange for more autonomy and impact. Identify your unique “superpowers,” the traits and skills that make you unique in the eyes of others.
For example, someone who has spent years managing client relationships isn’t just “good at sales.” They may have developed negotiation skills, as well as the ability to read people, manage competing priorities, or stay calm under pressure. All those skills can transfer well beyond their original context.
But what if the goal of your current journey is not landing the job, but a new identity?
One of the reasons it is so hard to change careers—or why we change, only to end up in the same boat—is that we can so fully internalize our institutional identities, relying on them to convey our worth and accomplishments to the outside world.
— Herminia Ibarra, Working Identity
Acting your way into a new identity
If you’re waiting to “feel like” a [insert a new career] person before you act like one, you may be waiting forever. Identity catches up to action, not the other way around.
Herminia Ibarra, the Charles Handy Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School, researched major career transitions. She found that people typically didn’t plan their way into a new identity through careful self-analysis. Instead, real-world experiences, such as a volunteer role or a side project, opened up new “possible selves” they hadn’t considered before. In other words, action came before clarity.
Working Identity
Letting go of who you were is part of the identity shift
Ibarra’s research also surfaces something rarely discussed: alongside the possible selves that excite you, transitions also force you to confront outdated identities. These are roles that no longer fit, or images of who you thought you’d become that you’re now letting go of. That sense of loss is real and worth acknowledging.
This phase often involves a profound sense of role-exit grief. As you become an “ex” — an ex-lawyer, an ex-manager, an ex-academic — you must endure a period of feeling lost. You’re facing the question, “Who am I without my job?” This period of limbo is the necessary “neutral zone” where old identities shatter.
Build your sense of self free from external validation
Losing a sense of professional identity can definitely bruise our egos. When external markers of status, such as title or salary, are no longer present, one can start to lose confidence. To work on that issue, we recommend reading Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday (find the key ideas in the summary):
Holiday argues that our ego is often the enemy of reinvention. Holiday’s concept of an “inner scorecard” — judging yourself by your own standards rather than others’ — is particularly relevant during a career change. He recommends redefining success internally before you’ve “arrived” externally.
Whether you are changing your career or your identity, it all comes down to bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to be. The question of career change may seem urgent, but you’ll be much better off if you take time to reflect on your goals. When you know what you’re looking for, a new career or an identity change, it’ll be easier to start taking action. Good luck!
Credentials:
- Photo by Chase Kennedy on Unsplash
