The 8 Stages of Career Transformation: How To Recognize Which One You're In Today

Part of Kathy Caprino's series "The Most Powerful You"

Some time ago, I had the pleasure of working with a client I deeply enjoyed and respected – let’s call her Sheryl – who had recently left a high-powered and lucrative management consultancy role to reinvent her career and focus on what she’s passionate about in a new way that will allow her to live and work as she truly wanted to.

Sheryl is like many of my clients who are highly-accomplished, driven, talented, brilliant, and longing for a way to be of service in the world that fits her values more closely. She enjoyed certain aspects of her previous job and career but chose to move away from it because a number of key dimensions didn’t fit where she wants to go in the future.

As we discussed the emotions she was feeling and the challenges she’s facing, she asked me,

“Kathy, what is the typical process that people go through when they’re making this type of career shift or reinvention? How do folks normally disengage from one career and create a new, more rewarding one?”

To answer those, I brought to mind my own career change and reinvention process many years ago, from very unhappy corporate VP to marriage and family therapist, then to career coach, writer and speaker. I thought back on interviews and coaching work with hundreds of women around the world, and also recalled the helpful model from William Bridges in his groundbreaking book, Transitions. Mr. Bridges and I share some common ideas about the transition process, but my model – focused on career transformation – diverges from his in some key ways.

From what I’ve observed and experienced, I've seen that there are eight typical stages we go through when we’ve decided to leave (or have been forced out of) a career that we've heavily identified with but no longer “fits,” and move toward reshaping our professional life to something more closely aligned with our highest visions and goals.

The 8 stages of successful career transformation as I see them are:

1. Disengagement

When we first leave a career or role that we believe is closely connected to our "identity," the disengagement process involves disentangling ourselves from a structure that we previously worked very hard to be a part of. Whether you liked it or disliked your previous career, it’s jarring and deeply unsettling at first, to move away from the very thing that, for years, represented a semblance of order, sense, and structure. We’re full of conflicting emotions as we embark on this disengagement process, and an experience of loss and grieving often creeps in, as we realize that what was once is no more (and most likely never will be again).

2. Disidentification

As we disengage, we start to understand that the identity we formed being a part of this former structure also needs re-assessment and revision. The ways we defined ourselves previously, and how we achieved our self-esteem or evaluated “progress” and accomplishment, for example, no longer hold up without the surrounding structure in place to support it. We’re startled at the realization that our “self-concept” – the identity we strove so hard to construct in order to “win” or survive in the former structure – is in fact, not one we wish to sustain.

3. Disorientation

At this stage, we often feel disoriented and confused. We’ve detached from the former structure or identity, but haven’t yet replaced it with something of meaning, something that fits. This period finds us befuddled and anxious, longing for clarity and movement but somehow knowing that rushing through this to attach prematurely to a new direction will not end well. During this period, we grasp the notion that we must allow the process to unfold, and let ourselves evolve and grow...to “become.” But this “becoming” feels like a limbo full of uncomfortable unknowing.

4. Letting Go

In this stage, we begin to realize that in order to free ourselves to move forward toward something more fulfilling and satisfying, we have to let go. We see more clearly how we co-created or even "attracted" many of our former problems, and that we were an active contributor to the challenges we faced in our previous situation. We realize that we have engaged in some habitual patterns, thinking, and behaviors that no longer serve us, and these will need to be released and revised if we want to grow to the fullest and to be our highest and best. We see, finally, that it wasn’t just the job or career that got in the way of our happiness, but in some core way, it was ourselves. We begin the work of “getting hip to our trip,” and letting go of what no longer works.

5. Re-engagement

Once we’ve had time to adjust to the loss of our former structure, and we own that we are co-creators of our own lives and begin to work on the aspects of us that contributed to our challenges, a light breaks through and there’s a dawn of re-engagement. We become more excited about working through change, and about the possibilities ahead. We begin to heal. We start to understand that we are indeed capable of creating a more fulfilling, joyful and successful future, and career, than we ever thought possible. And we’re ready to do the real work of inner and outer change.

6. Discovery

During this process, we embark on an exploration of who we are at a deeper level. We delve into the question of what is truly possible. We explore what matters most, and what we want of ourselves to endure after we’re gone. We discover lost parts of ourselves, and bring to the surface vital dimensions of our personality and our persona that went underground to make the old structure work. This stage is about discovering ourselves again – finding what was lost, healing what was wounded, and remembering what we wish to honor, support and strengthen in ourselves going forward.

7. Clarity

Finally, clarity emerges. We glimpse at a new picture of what we can become, and feel more engaged and enlivened than ever before. We allow ourselves to connect to what we truly long to be and do. We’ve wiped away the cobwebs that clouded our view from the prior experience, and are ready to embrace a new identity that makes full use of our talents and experiences, but in a new way that yields more fruit, now that we know ourselves better, and have identified what we want in a clearer, more expansive way.

8. Integration

This stage is about bringing it all together – our new insights, knowledge and experiences– to create a new career reality for ourselves. We see clearly what we’re capable of, and what held us back before, and are ready to commit to building a more exciting and rewarding next chapter of life and work that reflects the best of what we’ve learned and experienced.

* * * * *

How long these stages take is fully up to the individual, but one thing is certain: Walking away from a previous career and reinventing yourself requires time, and a great deal of courage, strength, patience, self-love, and faith.

But for most of us who have embarked on career transformation, it wasn’t a choice. We were called to do it, and once we started on the journey, we realized there was no turning back.

Which stage of career transformation are you in today?

Kathy Caprino is a career, executive and leadership coach and the author of the new book, The Most Powerful You: 7 Bravery-Boosting Paths to Career Bliss. She helps professional women build successful, rewarding careers through her Career & Leadership Breakthrough programs, Amazing Career Project course, and Finding Brave podcast.