Career Identity & Change Lab
Over the years, I’ve noticed that no matter the industry, the seniority, or the apparent success of someone’s career, the same set of questions eventually arrives often quietly, often late at night, and rarely with clean answers.
Questions like:
Is this still the right path for me?
Why does progress feel harder than it used to?
What do I do when I’m no longer learning, but not yet ready to leave?
If I change direction now, who do I become next?
These questions show up in coaching rooms with senior leaders, in classrooms with MBA students, and in private conversations with capable mid-career professionals who are doing well on paper and yet feel internally unsettled.
They are not questions of competence. They are questions of identity, direction, and timing.
And they tend to surface at moments of transition: after a restructure, during a prolonged plateau, following a setback, or when an old definition of success no longer fits the life being lived.
This newsletter The Career Identity & Change Lab exists because these questions deserve more than motivational slogans or linear career advice. They require space, rigour, and honest thinking.
The Career Identity & Change Lab Archive
Most career guidance focuses on moves: new roles, better titles, stronger CVs, sharper interview answers. That work matters. We will absolutely address it. But beneath every visible career move sits a quieter layer of work that is rarely named:
letting go of an identity that once served you well
tolerating uncertainty before clarity arrives
re-authoring your professional story so it still makes sense—to you and to others
renegotiating your relationship with ambition, security, status, and risk
This is why career change often feels heavier than it looks from the outside. You’re not just changing jobs. You’re changing who you are allowed to be at work.
What this newsletter is here to explore
The Career Identity & Change Lab looks at career development across multiple levels, because that’s how real careers unfold.
At the micro level, we’ll explore:
job search strategy and positioning
navigating internal moves, restructures, and organisational change
stalled progression and invisible plateaus
how to regain momentum without panic or self-betrayal
At the macro level, we’ll explore:
deciding what you actually want next—and why
identity shifts that accompany career transitions
designing careers that may include employment, portfolio work, fractional roles, entrepreneurship, or starting something of your own
how to think long-term without freezing in the present
This is not about chasing disruption for its own sake. It is about becoming constructively insurgent in your own interest; questioning inherited career scripts, default success metrics, and unconscious expectations that may no longer fit the person you are becoming.
Careers are no longer linear and neither is identity
One of the most consistent patterns I see is this:
People change faster than their careers do. Skills evolve. Values shift. Life contexts change. Yet professional identity often lags behind, held in place by old narratives:
“This is what I’m known for.”
“This is what I’m supposed to want.”
“It’s too late to rethink this now.”
The tension that follows is not a lack of discipline or gratitude. It is a misalignment between who you are now and the career architecture you’re operating inside. This newsletter is a place to examine that gap without drama, without false urgency, and without pretending there’s a single correct answer.
What you can expect from The Career Identity & Change Lab
Each edition will blend psychological insight, career strategy, and practical reflection. You’ll find:
evidence-based ideas drawn from organisational behaviour, adult development, and career research
clear mental models to help you interpret your own patterns and choices
practical questions to support decision-making not just action-taking
real examples drawn from coaching conversations with mid-career and senior professionals navigating change
space for ambiguity, not just optimisation
Some editions will be tactical. Others will be slower, more reflective. Many will start with a question rather than an answer. Think of this as a working laboratory, not a finished framework. A place to test ideas, surface assumptions, and develop the judgement required to navigate careers that are longer, less predictable, and more identity-shaping than ever before.
An invitation to think differently about careers
If this newsletter has a position, it is this: Career development is not just about progression.
It is about coherence. About making choices that align skill, identity, ambition, and life context over time. Whether you are:
actively exploring a next move
quietly questioning your current one
recovering from a career disruption
or simply sensing that something needs to evolve
You are not behind. You are in the middle of something. My hope is that The Career Identity & Change Lab becomes a resource you return to, not for answers on demand, but for better questions, steadier thinking, and a clearer relationship with change itself.
As always, I welcome reflection, disagreement, and conversation. Careers don’t evolve in isolation and neither should the thinking that shapes them.
Welcome to The Career Identity & Change Lab.
Let’s begin where real change usually starts: with attention, honesty, and deliberate choice.