Career transitions are often identity transitions

As part of the transition coaching work I do, some clients come specifically for a career transition. But whether it is a career transition or a life transition, what is really happening underneath is often a shift of identity.

And this is precisely why many traditional career transition models do not work well — especially in moments of uncertainty, burnout, redundancy, plateau, or industry disruption.

The conventional model and why it falls short

The conventional approach tends to follow the following logic:

• First introspect
• Discover your “true self”
• Define a clear goal
• Then execute the plan

On paper, it sounds rational, but in reality, it is often paralysing and ineffective.

The Myth of the “True Self”

When people face a career crisis, they usually turn inward. They take personality tests, list their strengths and passions, and try to identify the “perfect next role” that matches who they supposedly are or believe themselves to be. The problem is that the idea of a single “true self” is largely a myth, and what seems to be a constant and fixed self is, in fact, fluid and changing. We are not one fixed identity waiting to be uncovered. We are multiple selves, emerging through context, action, relationships, and experience.

The power of possible selves

Our possible selves – the identities we could potentially grow into – are often vague, undiscovered, or constrained by our past experiences and social conditioning. Career reinvention is therefore not primarily an act of logical deduction, but an act of experimentation intended to reveal through experience the nature of these possible selves.

We rarely “know then do”. We “do then know”

The people who navigate transition most effectively tend to test, explore, prototype, and adapt. They try new roles, projects, conversations, environments, ways of relating and working – often on a small scale first. And this is what best defines the “in-between” chapter period.  Then, through those lived experiences, a new identity begins to take shape.

Identity as a Hypothesis

So the invitation is to treat identity not as something fixed to discover, but as a hypothesis to test. Successful reinvention is not just about changing what you do. It is really about changing who you are becoming.