Feeling trapped in your current role and contemplating a career transition?

Feeling trapped in your current role and contemplating a career transition involves a careful assessment of your needs and aspirations. Start by evaluating your core strengths, interests, and long-term goals to identify what aspects of your current role are unsatisfying and what you seek in a new career. Conduct informational interviews and research potential industries or roles that align with your values and skills. Reflect on your experiences to pinpoint transferable skills and areas for growth. This introspective process will help clarify your next steps, allowing you to make an informed decision about transitioning to a role that better aligns with your professional and personal fulfillment.

My first step is to understand the root causes of their dissatisfaction. I start by having an open and honest conversation to identify what specifically makes them feel trapped—whether it's a lack of growth, unfulfilling work, poor work-life balance, or something else. Once we pinpoint the underlying issues, I help them evaluate whether a career transition is indeed the right solution. We explore their interests, strengths, and values to ensure any new career path aligns with their long-term goals. I guide them through assessing their current skills and identifying gaps that may need addressing. We then create a strategic plan, including networking, updating their resume, and setting actionable steps toward a new role.

Feeling trapped in your current role is a challenging experience, but it's also an opportunity for growth and change. A coach can help with reflecting on the root causes and help also to determine what you want in your career. But, more importantly, consider the difference between "freedom from" and "freedom to": usually making a change to be "free from" (a bad manager, a toxic culture, an unfulfilling career) will hardly propel you in the right direction, where you are "free to" shine and eploit your potential.

If you're considering a career change, most likely you're going through an intense emotional period. My 2 cents is to always be proactive and don't neglect the common red flags.... - That Sunday night dread before heading back to work. - Minor issues start to feel overwhelming - The spark of learning or excitement is just... gone. - Vision of the company changes, you ask yourself what am I doing here? - You start to see financial issues coming... paycheck arrives a little late, cutting costs here and there, declining sales figures, layoffs are more often now. It seems like every week, someone new is let go... you will feel it. it all start with recognising your context, emotions and what's affecting you.

We are hard-wired to get stuck in a cycle of solving the same career problems over and over again when we leap into new careers. As a leadership coach specialising in helping people realign work they love with the things that matter most, hesitating on the brink of any career crossroads is the single most important step towards making meaningful change. We are all more than the work we do and there are no hard lines between our personal and professional lives, yet it takes enormous self-awareness to think beyond what we are best at and give consideration to what we also enjoy most, and value closely. In my book, UNSTUCK, I dive deep into this act of alignment, so that any career redesign plans are purposeful, not just actionable.

This is a typical but top-down perspective that sees careerists contort themselves into roles that might be logical and available but are also wrong! The smarter way to access the hidden job market is in pursuit of a purposeful career redesign and it starts with getting crystal clear not only about the strengths you have accrued in your career, but also about what's missing for you and the values you need to honour for any redesign to fix that in your next career chapter. When you’re clear on what your redesign plan needs to align with, exploring new paths and networking becomes strategic, not reactive. A career transformation isn't about being well utilised elsewhere; it’s about realigning work you love with the things that matter most.

You're considering a job change, a significant decision that can greatly impact your life's direction. It's important to approach this thoughtfully. Ensure that you're moving toward something you genuinely desire, rather than just escaping from your current situation. I've seen people leave jobs out of dissatisfaction, only to encounter the same issues in their next role. To make a well-informed decision, consider these guiding questions: - What does my ideal work/life balance look like? - In what type of company culture do I thrive? - What factors prevent me from performing at my best?

I'm going to challenge this! Relying too heavily on a fixed plan can actually limit your career potential. An agile career mindset is about staying adaptable and ever open to changing plans made. In my book UNSTUCK, I guide readers through a "What Next Quest"—a process of feeling your way forward in career redesign, one safe, not scary, step at a time. It’s about creating a purposeful plan but then being ready to tweak it based on real-world feedback from a series of conversational and experiential pilot tests. This approach ensures your career change isn’t just strategic, but also flexible and responsive to what you learn along the way. It's the closest route to a better aligned career transformation every time, in my experience.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to this—it all depends on you. One way that has worked for me, in the past, was to focus on my inner resources, human capital, and network as a starting point. When faced with big decisions, it’s crucial to remember that you don’t have to navigate them alone. Leveraging your network or working with a coach who can help you reflect and clarify what’s most important as you embark on your next chapter can save you an incredible amount of time and prevent the frustration of feeling lost and indecisive.

Continuous learning is essential, but I prefer those I work with to define success for themselves. With that career clarity, it's less about competitive advantage and more important to focus on doing work you love and that feels purposeful. Job crafting starts with a private review—take time to reflect on what aspects of your work lights you up and what drains you during your days. What you enjoy points to your strengths and passions, while that stomach-sinking feeling or the things you put off signal where change is needed. This self-awareness is your compass for crafting a well-aligned role. The goal is simple: do more of what you love and collect the learning and experiences that move you closer to a career that feels purpose-driven.

Embracing a mindset of being a lifelong student is essential in today's world. On top of that, with only 24 hours in a day, the ability to distinguish between noise and signal can be a critical factor in your success compared to your competition. I recommend reverse engineering the path you choose. Start with your end goal and work backwards, keeping the two Es in mind: - Effectiveness: Is what I’m doing bringing me closer to my goal? - Efficiency: How can I reach my goal in the fewest steps possible?

We think of confidence as if this is a stable and desirable state necessary to succeeding. While a surge of confidence brings with it a compelling future-focus and positive energy to pursue it, there are downsides to being over-confident in career transitions and interviews alike. Arrogance is off-putting. And overly optimistic thinking leads to pursuing impossible goals and wasting time, money and energy. The real key to success is neither being over- or under-confident but striving to maintain the kind of well-calibrated, adaptive confidence that elevates career redesign plans. And leaves room to translate learnings then be agile when - as it will - obstacles, setbacks or mis-steps threaten your hopes for the next career chapter.

Building confidence would be a bandage solution. Instead, I would focus on two things: (1) Remember, interviews are a two-way street. Just as the employer is evaluating whether you’re right for them, you’re also determining if they’re worth your time and expertise. Keep your values in mind, and stay firm on what you want (your answers from section 2 – Exploring Options) (2) Concentrate on being fully present when engaging with potential employers and your network. By focusing on their needs rather than your own, you naturally shift into solution mode, which eliminates the need to worry about confidence—you’re too busy being genuinely engaged.

I used to think that networking was daunting. But then I realised that it was about finding a match between what you can offer and to helping different people solve their problems. When I was exploring in my first 5 years of my career, I actually got introduced by 1 manager to speak to other startup founder who actually got me to connect to 2 more people. When you are clearer about your direction, it becomes easier to meet the right people with the right frequency to help you get to your answers and opportunities faster. Preparation of your own work and research still applies so that you can make the best decision that excites you!