9 min read • Career Transitions • Reflection 4
Career transitions rarely begin with a decision. More often, they begin with a possibility that quietly captures our attention long before we understand why.
The idea may first emerge while listening to a podcast, attending a conference, mentoring a colleague, or talking to someone whose work immediately resonates with you. For a brief moment, you find yourself wondering what it might be like to follow a similar path. The thought seems fleeting, and you quickly return your attention to your own work.
What is interesting, however, is that some of these ideas refuse to disappear. Months or even years later, they quietly resurface. Perhaps you notice yourself becoming increasingly curious about a different kind of work or a different way of contributing. Not because you have decided to make a career change, but because certain possibilities continue to capture your imagination.
Over the past few years, I have noticed this pattern in many conversations with sustainability professionals. The interesting question is rarely whether these possibilities are realistic. It is why they keep returning.
Curiosity often appears before clarity
We often assume that career transitions begin with certainty. We imagine that people decide to change direction only after carefully weighing their options and developing a clear plan for what comes next.
The conversations I have had suggest something rather different.
Long before people make decisions, they begin noticing a shift in what captures their attention. Certain conversations remain with them long after others have been forgotten. Particular ways of working become unexpectedly interesting. They find themselves paying closer attention to opportunities that seem to reflect something they cannot yet fully explain.
At first, these moments are easy to dismiss because they feel too small to matter. Yet what makes them interesting is not their intensity but their persistence. Not every interesting idea deserves our attention, but the ones that continue returning often do.
Why this seems especially common in sustainability
Many sustainability professionals have spent years developing expertise in a profession that has changed dramatically over the past decade. Along the way, they have become far more than technical specialists. They have learned how to influence leaders, navigate organisational complexity, facilitate collaboration, mentor colleagues, and create the conditions for meaningful change.
As those capabilities mature, it is perhaps not surprising that people also begin imagining different ways of using them.
What initially appears to be an attraction towards another career is often something much deeper.
It reflects a different way of wanting to contribute.
Looking beyond the role
The more I have reflected on these conversations, the less I believe that people are really attracted to different roles.
Instead, I have come to think that they are attracted to different ways of expressing who they have become.
At first glance, the possibilities people describe often appear unrelated. The work itself may differ considerably from one person to another, making it tempting to view each possibility as an entirely separate career choice. Yet the more I listened to these conversations, the less convinced I became that the specific role was the most interesting part of the story.
When we look beneath the surface, these apparently different possibilities often have far more in common than first appears. They represent opportunities to express qualities that have gradually become more important as a person’s career has evolved. For some, that means creating ideas rather than primarily implementing them. For others, it means enabling the growth of others, exercising greater strategic influence, working with more autonomy, or contributing in ways that feel more deeply aligned with their values.
The roles may differ.
The underlying aspiration is often remarkably similar.
Perhaps this is why recurring curiosity deserves more attention than we usually give it. It is rarely pointing us towards a particular job title. More often, it is drawing our attention to qualities that have quietly become more important in the way we want to contribute.
Seen in that light, the attraction is no longer really about another role.
It is about another expression of ourselves.
Rather than wondering whether we should pursue a particular opportunity, perhaps we should first ask what it is about that possibility that continues to resonate. If several different paths have captured our attention over time, placing them alongside one another can reveal something that evaluating them individually never will.
The question to sit with
If this reflection resonates with you, perhaps the question is not:
“Should I change careers?”
Instead, consider placing those recurring possibilities alongside one another and asking yourself:
What do these recurring possibilities have in common?
The answer may not tell you what your next role should be.
It may, however, reveal something far more valuable: the kind of contribution that has become meaningful to you and the qualities you increasingly want your work to express.
Sometimes that understanding arrives long before any career decision needs to be made.
Recognising the pattern is not about predicting the future. It is about understanding yourself more clearly in the present.
Continue Exploring
If this reflection resonated with you, it may not be the only question you’re asking.
What’s Next? Eight Reflections on Career Transitions in Sustainability explores seven additional questions that frequently emerge as sustainability professionals navigate leadership, career transitions, and professional growth.
If you’d like to continue exploring these reflections, you can download the guide free of charge.
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