Career Transitions: A Roadmap to The First 30 Days

This post, the third in a series on navigating career transition, summarizes what Kathryn Reichert and I learned from our interviews with women in our network about their own transitions, whether those transitions were triggered by choice or organizational circumstances.

Today’s post focuses on what NOT to do in the first 30 days, and includes the top two tips to start your future on the right foot.

For context, our inaugural post curated the best advice we heard for internalizing and processing the decision, and our second post focused on key steps for rebuilding one’s brand in the aftermath of a job loss.

Given that the women we spoke with were in various stages of transition, we agreed not to attribute the advice to any individual.

So, what did our “transition tutors” say about the first 30 days? Here goes…

1. Don’t make any big decisions in any aspect of your life, professional or personal. Try to chill and just process it all.
2. Don’t wallow in self-pity or drive yourself crazy asking questions like “why me?,” “why not someone else?,” or “why did this happen?.” You'll never have the answers to these questions, so try to turn off these types of thoughts. And, don’t focus on the past in an unproductive way, such as blaming yourself or thinking you did something wrong. You didn't.
3. Don’t forget to be good to yourself. Go for a walk, get a massage, take a trip – do things that you enjoy and live your life.
4. Don’t wade through these new waters all alone. Working with an experienced career coach can help you navigate, focus your energy in the right places, and fine-tune your narrative, so you can tell the world what makes you unique.
5. Don’t jump at the first thing that comes your way out of fear or lack of foresight and planning. It takes time to get your business off the ground or land the right role. Remind yourself to remain agile and that you can pivot when necessary (and keep doing #3 above…).
6. Don’t be afraid to be bold and task a risk on yourself. If you don’t try, you will never know if you will succeed.

That’s our advice on what NOT to do – and to help you focus on the future, here are the top suggestions of what you should do:

• DO take the time to make a plan, and write it down. Ever heard that saying that “if you don’t know where you are going, you are liable to end up somewhere else”? Well, it’s true – it’s your life and now is the time to plan where you want to go.
• DO take the time to create your value proposition, and write it down. That way, you won’t squander an all-important first impression with an influential connection and you’ll be able to articulate your value proposition in a compelling, confident way. Take this time to rebuild and re-energize. It’s also ok to go off the grid.

Many of you have likely experienced a career transition. What did you do in the first 30 days that you would recommend to others in a similar situation? What do you wish you had done – or what do you regret?